Remco Evenepoel powered to a sensational time trial victory on stage four of the Critérium du Dauphiné, obliterating his rivals on the 17.4 kilometre course to take over the race lead of Iván Romeo (Movistar).
The reigning Olympic and World Champion was simply untouchable, beating the times of Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar, his Tour de France rivals, with a supersonic time of 20:50:90 in Saint-Péray.
The 25-year-old Belgian averaged 50 kmph across the course, beating Vingegaard and Pogačar by 20 and 49 seconds respectively. Vingegaard’s teammate Matteo Jorgenson also bettered Pogačar’s time at the finish, the two-time Paris-Nice winner finishing in 21:28:69.
Evenepoel now leads the race by four seconds ahead of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Florian Lipowitz in second. Vingegaard jumped up to fifth, 16 seconds behind Evenepoel, with Pogačar in eighth, 38 seconds down on the stage winner and new yellow jersey. Jorgenson sits in ninth, one second slower than Pogačar.
"My goal was to go as fast as possible until the intermediate," Evenepoel said afterwards. "After that I just tried to get a steady pace until the finish line. I think the advantage I had was that there was a lot of headwind, at least before and after the climb, so I used that to really take advantage of my position and the power I can do in my position. On the climb I just went as fast as possible and I think we had a perfect pacing strategy."
"I just wanted to win, then afterwards we were going to see how it would be in terms of GC," he added. "I think I can be very happy with this victory, number 1,000 for our team, so I'm very proud to have done it. This is one for Patrick [Lefevere, former Soudal Quick-Step team boss] and for everything that he did for the team. This victory is one for him and for all of his career."
Evenepoel expressed surprise at taking significant time on Pogačar: "In the end it is quite a big gap on quite a short TT, so I’m very happy to have put over one second per kilometre on everybody. I'm super proud, I'm very happy with the feeling that I have now. It's always nice to bring home a WorldTour victory."
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How it happened
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Stage four of the Critérium du Dauphiné was the first serious GC test at this year’s race between the trio of Tour de France overall favourites, Tadej Pogačar, Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard, the three podium finishers in Nice last year.
The course was a relatively quick 17.4 kilometre run between Charmes-sur-Rhône and Saint-Péray, with a small climb coming halfway through the parcours. It was a course tailor made for the likes of World and Olympic time trial champion Evenepoel, with many tipping him as the favourite for the stage win.
Tobias Foss (Ineos Grenadiers) set an early best time of 22:00:20, powering through the course with an average speed of 47.4 kmph, although his time was later topped by Frenchman Rémi Cavagna of Groupama-FDJ. Cavagna pushed his time under the 22 minute mark, stopping the clock at the finish with a time of 21:57:21. The bottom half of the climb on the course was evidently very steep, averaging 15%, with several riders visibly struggling on their time trial bikes up the ascent.
As the clock ticked past 16:15 local time, American duo Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers) and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) headed down the start ramp. Sheffield endured a stressful wait at the start, quickly adjusting his gearing with the help of a mechanic, before eventually getting away on time. Jorgenson, meanwhile, was 15 seconds quicker than Cavagna at the intermediate check point as Evenepoel got set to start.
With all three of the favourites out on the course, the time to beat at the finish was that set by Jorgenson, with the American half a minute quicker than Cavagna at 21.28.69. Evenepoel reached his minute man with ease, Bastien Tronchon of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, powering past him and up the climb. Jonas Vingegaard followed suit just a few minutes later, quickly passing his own minute man.
Evenepoel was evidently in unbeatable form, destroying Jorgenson’s time by 30 seconds at the check point with ease before catching his second minute man. The Belgian went on to top the leaderboard at the finish and pull on the yellow jersey, putting 48 seconds into Pogačar.
1. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step, in 14:31:08 2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +21s 3. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +38s 4. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +49s 5. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +57s 6. Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Deceuninck, +1:02 7. Stian Fredheim (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, +1:07 8. Eddie Dunbar (Ire) Jayco-AlUla, +1:10 9. Tobias Foss (Nor) Ineos Grenadiers, at same time 10. Paul Seixas (Fra) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +1:14
General classification after stage four
1. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step, in 14:31:08 2. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +4s 3. Iván Romeo (Spa) Movistar, +9s 4. Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Deceuninck, +14s 5. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +16s 6. Eddie Dunbar (Ire) Jayco-AlUla, +30s 7. Harold Tejada (Col) XDS Astana, at same time 8. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +38s 9. Matteo Jorgenson (Usa) Visma-Lease a Bike, +39s 10. Louis Barré (Fra) Intermarché - Wanty, 1:03
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After previously working in higher education, Tom joined Cycling Weekly in 2022 and hasn't looked back. He's been covering professional cycling ever since; reporting on the ground from some of the sport's biggest races and events, including the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix and the World Championships. His earliest memory of a bike race is watching the Tour on holiday in the early 2000's in the south of France - he even made it on to the podium in Pau afterwards. His favourite place that cycling has taken him is Montréal in Canada.
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