Reigning Olympic time trial champion Remco Evenepoel should be a major factor in Caen as Tadej Pogacar, Mathieu van der Poel battle for overall lead.

The race of truth is the first big opportunity for the general classification riders to lay down a marker so this should be intriguiing viewing. At 33km it is also the longest opening-week individual time trial since 2012 and that should pronounce any time gaps between the favourites.

In fact it truly kicked off yesterday, with Tadej Pogacar putting a handful more seconds into his rivals to move level on time with race leader Mathieu van der Poel by claiming his 18th Tour stage win and the 100th of his frankly ludicrously brilliant career.