21-year-old Pogačar rose to the occasion in the individual time trial, demolishing Roglič's lead of 57 seconds en route to the stage win and yellow jersey victory in what has been a dream first Tour de France for the young Slovenian.
Roglič was unable to replicate the consistently strong performances that earned him top spot in the GC rankings for 11 consecutive stages, looking stiff and uncomfortable on the bike as he eventually finished fifth in the stage.
And Van Aert, fourth on the stage, who rode in outstanding support of Roglič throughout the Tour, expressed his bitter disappointment at how the day transpired as he revealed the group was on the cusp of celebrating a seemingly perfect campaign before Pogačar dominated proceedings.
"It is very difficult to give this up at the last minute," Van Aert admitted to Dutch news outlet Nos.nl. "We are very disappointed. Everything went perfectly, actually, we worked very hard for it and there was nothing to indicate that it would go wrong today."
"It hurt my eyes how Primož got more and more into difficulty. It didn't look as smooth as usual, he missed that cadence."
"And before the start, it all looked so good. But it is a combination of Pogačar that rode really fantastic while Primož did not reach his normal level that ensures this result. We went all out every day. We gave everything and did everything perfectly. We were ready to celebrate, so to speak."
Dumoulin, who placed second in the time trial, was blown away by the brilliance of Pogačar as he conceded the team expected they had done enough to ensure their own Slovenian rider would take first place on the podium in Paris.
"What can I say? It happened. I don't know how Pogacar climbed a minute faster than I did," Dumoulin said. "We hadn't taken this into account, this is quite a blow.
"The Tour win slips from our hands. I rode well again, but that doesn't matter anymore."
"Pogačar was too strong today. He was at a completely different level than we were. Primoz felt good, he knew he had to put down a good time trial. He hasn't ridden his best, but it certainly wasn't bad either. We expected it to be enough."
Don't miss out on the Porte podium party and Caleb Ewan contesting the sprint victory on the Champs-Élysées, the final stage of the 2020 Tour de France. Watch on SBS HD and SBS On Demand from 11:30pm AEST and the SBS ŠKODA Tour Tracker from 11:35pm AEST.
