Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) strengthened his grip on fifth place overall with a brilliant ride in his Vuelta a España debut on Tuesday.

On a great day for Slovenian cycling, Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) took the leader's jersey in Pau, while Pogacar, making his first Grand Tour appearance, finished 11th in the Vuelta's only time trial, 1:29 back.

Pogacar, who holds 5th place overall, showed that he is still an important part of the GC contenders, despite pulling out all the stops to win the Andorra mountain stage on Sunday.

"It was a very hard TT, but I felt great and went full throttle.

"I rested a bit on the downhills, but after the second climb I was really struggling.

The Slovenian national TT champion finished second to Roglic by 21 seconds in the first time check, putting him in the top three.

Pogacar slowed relatively, dropping to 7th by 48 seconds at the second time check and to 11th by 1:29 at the third checkpoint.

This great result for the Slovenians meant that the Tour of California winner finished 9 seconds ahead of Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), 31 seconds ahead of Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana), and 1 minute 37 seconds ahead of overnight leader Nairo Quintana (Movistar) This means that he finished with a 1:37 advantage over the overnight leader, Nairo Quintana (Movistar). In other words, of the GC contenders for the Vuelta, only Roglic finished ahead of Pogacar.

Pogacar later revealed that in the TT he was playing his own game rather than following the original team plan. He lost some time in the middle part of the course, but overall the race could not have gone any better.

"I was going to take it easier on the first climb, but I felt really good there and I wanted to keep pushing," Pogacar explained of his explosive start. Once I got to the technicals, I ran a lot easier."

"In any case, it was one of my dreams to wear the TT national champion's jersey at the Vuelta.

Pogacar said after his Andorra stage win that he was taking it one day at a time in terms of GC, but that he would try "as hard as possible" to finish inside the top 10 in Madrid.

And it is true that Pogacar has not moved up any further in GC after Tuesday's time trial compared to Andorra, who has moved up from 9th to 5th overall. However, the GC rankings are deceptive when it comes to the young Slovenian's performance.

Before Pau's TT, the 20-year-old was trailing fourth-placed Valverde by 1:22, but now Pogacar is just five seconds behind Valverde's teammate Quintana, who is fourth overall. Not only that, but third place on the provisional Vuelta podium is only 44 seconds behind Pogacar.

Pogacar was cautious about whether to up his own goals after Pau in the second half of the Vuelta.

"I'll work hard, one day at a time," he said. I'll do my best and do what I can."

But the omens for another outstanding performance by another young rider in this year's Grand Tour GC could not be better at the moment.