photo credits @ Le Tour
The big showdown anticipated for stage 4 of the Critérium du Dauphiné smiled on Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) today, after the Belgian rider powered his way to an impressive victory in Saint-Péray.
The 17.4-km Individual Time Trial, saw the Olympic and world champion gained 21 seconds on Jonas Vingegaard, 38 on Matteo Jorgenson and 49 on Tadej Pogacar. Just like he did last year, the Belgian swaps his rainbow jersey for the yellow and blue jersey, ahead of Florian Lipowitz (+4”) and former leader Ivan Romeo (+9”).
Cavagna raises the bar
Domen Novak (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was the first rider off the ramp, at 14:15. But, his time at the finish (24’43’’) was quickly beaten by Norwegian national champion Soren Waerenskjold (Uno-X Mobility), setting a new best time of 23 minutes.
It took a major effort from his countryman Tobias Foss (Ineos Grenadiers) to edge him from the hot seat, who clocked a time of 22’00’’ (47.4 km/h).
Foss’ time prevailed until Rémi Cavagna (Groupama-FDJ), who bested Foss by 3 seconds with an average speed of 47.6 km/h.
Evenepoel at 50.1 km/h
Cavagna enjoyed half an hour in the hot seat, until the was dethroned by Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), who raised the bar even higher by being the French rider’s time by 28 seconds.
However, Evenepoel no sooner set off from Charmes-sur-Rhône, he passed the intermediate time check 30 seconds ahead of the American rider, later crossing the finish with a lead of 37 seconds.
From there, Evenepoel’s benchmark proved too great for even Vingegaard, who crossed the finish 28 seconds down on his Belgian rival, while the gap was even greater for Pogacar, who has dropped off of the podium after finishing 11 seconds behind Jorgenson and 49 seconds behind Evenepoel.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
