The Tour de France hybrid time trial once again saw a surprisingly large gap between the overall top two, and while UAE Team Emirates has been here before with Tadej Pogachar, this time it was a more subdued experience.

Three years ago, Pogachar ran up La Planche des Belle Filles and took the yellow from Primoz Roglic in the last to turn a tight Tour de France around. On Tuesday, Jonas Vingegaard delivered a shocking time trial to take a decisive advantage in a Tour that has been closely contested.

Vingegaard was in a class of his own on the undulating 22.4 km course from Passy to Combrue, and it was clear from the moment he started pedaling that it would be an exercise in minimizing damage from the afternoon's pogachar.

By the first check at 7km, Vingegaard had already built up a 16-second lead, and he pushed that advantage on the canyon road through Salanche, almost doubling his lead to 31 seconds at 16km.

Vingegaard made light work of the Côte de Mancy, building an additional 34-second lead on this climb alone and stopping the clock 1:38 ahead of Pogachar in Combrue. Pogachar was in a class of his own.

Andrei Hauptmann served as Pogachar's course guide, and when he emerged from the UAE Team Emirates car afterward, he thought there was nothing more his rider could have done on this course. Pogachar was more than a minute faster than the other riders, but still nearly two kilometers per hour slower than Vingegaard.

"Tadei did a really great time trial. I can only say congratulations to Jonas," Hauptmann said, insisting that Pogachal's performance was in line with the UAE's prior expectations. Tadej's result was close to our calculations." We know Jonas is really strong, but our plan was to get close to him."

Outside the UAE Team Emirates bus, general manager Mauro Gianetti confessed that he felt down after seeing Vingegaard take an early advantage over Pogachar. Like Hauptmann, he believed that Pogachar had performed close to their best. Vingegaard, it seemed, had far exceeded their calculations.

"I didn't expect such a big difference today. Taddei was second, more than a minute ahead of Van Aert. But the reality is: Jonas did an incredible time trial. It was impressive

"After the first time check I knew I was 15 seconds ahead. It was a good signal for Vingegaard, but not for us. Every rider knows if he can do it or not.

As in La Planche des Belle Filles three years ago, Pogachar switched from his time trial machine to a road bike for the Côte de Mancy climb. Vingegaard, who rode his time trial bike throughout, made his biggest gains on that very part of the course.

"Having done all the testing beforehand, it was clear that changing bikes for Taddei and not changing bikes for Adam Yates would be advantageous. This was an individual issue and it was clear from the beginning," Gianetti said. "We lost 10 seconds changing bikes, which was to be expected, but we also lost another 1:30. The difference today wasn't the bike change, it was the power difference."

"I was not able to get a good result," said Gianetti.

In the overall standings, Pogachar was 1:48 behind Vingegaard, while teammate Adam Yates moved into third place, 8:52 behind Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos).

There are still opportunities to turn the tide before Paris, including Wednesday's Col de la Rose and Saturday's Vosges, but does UAE Team Emirates now have its eyes on the bottom two steps of the podium and the UCI points that come with it?

"In this situation, it might be important for both of us to be on the podium, but the priority remains to win the Tour," Gianetti said.

"Taddei is a guy who likes to try different things.

Pogachar dropped Vingegaard in Cauteré early in this Tour, a day after losing nearly a minute to Vingegaard on the Marie Blanc pass on stage 6.

Since then, the gap between the two favorites has remained close, with neither able to gain more than a few seconds on the other. Pogachar now needs to figure out a way to regain nearly two minutes.

"Of course, everything is possible," he said. It's not easy. Realistically it is complicated, but if you have a week in front of you, you need to go, you need to dream, you need to believe and work for this."

But after the exhibition that Vingegaard showed here, belief is certainly limited.