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After three days of bunch sprints to open the Dauphine, the general classification riders and time trial specialists got a chance to flex their muscles in the ‘race of truth’ as they set the first big marker down ahead of the Tour de France.
All eyes were on defending Tour de France champion, Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), and while the Danish rider impressed, it was his time-trial specialist countryman who took the honours on the day.
The course was roughly divided into three parts, with an uphill start and longer downhill section to the first checkpoint at kilometre 10.7, then a flatter 9km mid-section, and finally the 11.4km false flat grind that wound up to gradients of 6% in the home straight.
Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates) registered slower splits than his rivals for the stage, placing behind second and third-placed finishers, respectively, Vingegaard and Remi Cavagna (Deceuninck-QuickStep) at the first time check. They were all within a second of each other at the second marker, but Bjerg timed his effort well to come home strong and win the stage.
Bjerg moved into the overall lead with the stage win, and now sits atop the standings by 12 seconds over Vingegaard, with Australian hopefuls Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroen) fourth overall at 41 seconds in arrears, Jai Hindley (BORA-hansgrohe) 1’08 behind in tenth, and Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) 1’15 off the pace in 11th.
O’Connor was very happy after his ride, declaring the effort to be ‘one of my best time trials’.
“During the race, I knew by looking at the data that I was doing one of my best time trials,” said O’Connor. “It still had to be confirmed once the best riders had crossed the finish line.
“I set a really good time. It was one of my goals this week because the time gaps here can also be as big as the ones you will find in the mountains.”
Hindley was quietly happy with his performance as well, coming straight from an altitude training camp in Tignes where he has been training along with the rest of the BORA-Hansgrohe Tour de France squad.
“I haven’t done a 30km TT in quite a while, so it was pretty hard today,” said Hindley. ‘I’m happy with my performance, pacing and form but also with the set-up and how the team worked.
“In our altitude camp in Tignes we put a lot of effort into TT training, so it’s good to see the results already. I’m looking forward to the upcoming days in the mountains.”
Hindley spoke to SBS Sport ahead of the Criterium du Dauphine about the race, and his ambitions for the 2023 Tour de France. Find both of those interviews below.
Haig also put in a strong performance to move into 11th overall, the showing significantly better than his Giro d'Italia efforts against the clock. Luke Durbridge is more of a time trial specialist, not perfectly suited to the lumpy course, but put in another good ride to finish 12th on the stage.
The strong performances of the Australians was put into sharp relief by a number of contenders who had a very tough day in the saddle, with many shipping over two-and-a-half minutes to the stage winner.
Meanwhile, the prohibitive favourite for the overall Dauphine win, Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) produced a very good performance without blowing away the competition.
"Of course, I was hoping to win the time trial and take the yellow jersey from Christophe,” said Vingegaard. "But the strongest won today. I can be reasonably happy with my performance.
“I had a quick start in mind. It worked, but maybe I went a little too fast. I tried to save myself in the middle section and then went full speed to the finish. Perhaps I could have done things differently, but I can be reasonably happy with the result. Mikkel was outstanding today.”
Bjerg isn’t a bad climber, with some impressive domestique performances at times for Tadej Pogacar in last year’s Tour de France, but he isn’t expected to hang with the favourites on the big mountains towards the back end of the race. Vingegaard is in the prime position to profit, with a 29-second lead over O’Connor, the next-best of the pre-race general classification contenders.
“In the coming days, I'm hoping to get another shot at the yellow jersey,” said Vingegaard. “The advantage is that tomorrow we don't have to take control right away.”
At the other end of the scale, it was a poor day for Tour de France hopefuls David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) who conceded 2’22 to the stage winner, Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers) who lost 2’37, Richard Carapaz who finished 2’39 back, Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) 2’49 in arrears and Enric Mas (Movistar) significantly off the mark at 3’00.
The Criterium du Dauphine continues tonight with Stage 5, the hilly stage seeing the tough climb of the Cote de Thesy (3.7km at 8.2%) summit with 14 kilometres remaining in the race. Watch it all from 11pm AEST on SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand.
