Remco Evenepoel delivers time trial demonstration to win stage 4 of Critérium du Dauphiné

Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) won stage 4 of the Critérium du Dauphiné with a demonstration in the 17.4km individual time trial to Saint-Péray ahead of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike), Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike), and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG). 

The Belgian star moves into the yellow jersey of race leader, despite a brave performance from Tuesday's stage winner Iván Romeo Movistar). The stage was billed as an important test of shape between Pogačar, Vingegaard, and Evenepoel, and so it proved. The course was shaped by a difficult, steep climb planted around the mid-point, which turned the scales in favour of the GC contenders over the TT-specialists.

In the end, Evenepoel proved why he is the world and Olympic champion in the discipline as he finished 20 seconds ahead of Vingegaard, 37 seconds ahead of Jorgenson, and crucially, some 48 seconds ahead of Pogačar. This sets the race up perfectly for a battle of the galacticos in the mountains over this weekend, with Pogačar needing to gain time on his two major rivals with some major mountain tests to come.

“The advantage I had is that there was a lot of headwind in the valley before and after the climb and I really used that to take advantage of my position and the power I can do,” Evenepoel said. “On the the climb I just went as fast as possible. I think we had the perfect pacing strategy.

“I’m very happy with this victory and to take victory 1000 of the team. It’s one for Patrick [Lefevere] and for everything he did for the team.

“I just wanted to win and then see how it would be in terms of GC. In the end it’s quite a big gap in a quite a short TT. I’m very happy to have more than one second per kilometre on some riders and two seconds per kilometre on some others.”

The early benchmark was set by the former time trial world champion Tobias Foss (Ineos Grenadiers), who blitzed the previous best time posted from Omloop Nieuwsblad winner Søren Wærenskjold by a minute. This would leave the Norwegian in the hot seat for a while, as the strongest time triallists in the race were also the GC contenders, who were the last riders to roll off the ramp. Thibault Guernalec (Arkea B&B Hotels) pushed Foss close as the Frenchman crossed the line nine seconds adrift.

Eventually, it was a home rider who claimed the hotseat as Rémi Cavagna was able to usurp Foss’s time by a mere two seconds, shortly before the GC contenders began to roll out onto the course. Paul Sexias (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) impressed before Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike) smashed the time set by Cavagna by 28 seconds.

Evenepoel was the first of the big three to set off, and he looked imposingly strong as he passed his minute man on the climb. Behind him, Vingegaard and Pogačar also looked to have settled into their rhythm well and they also passed their minute men on the climb.

Iván Romeo, the race leader and final rider to start, would have been motivated and confident in his ability to keep the yellow jersey as the current under-23 time trial world champion.

Through the intermediate split shortly after the climb, however, Evenepoel had smashed the time set by Jorgenson by 30 seconds and it was clear that Romeo’s jersey was in danger. Vingegaard passed through the split 11 seconds behind the Belgian but the headline news was Pogačar’s struggle, as he came through the slowest of the three by some distance at 30 seconds behind Evenepoel.

At the finish, Evenepoel set an unreachable time of 20:50. Behind him, Vingegaard and Visma | Lease a Bike had reason for satisfaction, as the Dane only conceded 20 seconds to Evenepoel, but crucially gained 18 seconds on Pogačar.

The race leader, Romeo, fought valiantly throughout his effort but he finished the stage 1:26 behind Evenepoel, meaning that he ceded the yellow jersey to Evenepoel. Lipowitz, who gained time in the GC after being in Tuesday’s breakaway, rode strongly to finish fifth on the stage but narrowly missed out on taking the yellow jersey.