Criterium du Dauphine: Van Aert wins stage 4

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Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) took a surprise but resounding victory in the 26.1km individual time trial west of Roanne, stage 4 at the Critérium du Dauphiné, confirming yet again that he is far more than a cyclo-cross and Classics rider.

The racing was overshadowed by the news of Chris Froome's high-speed crash during his late-morning recon ride on the course, with riders in shock to hear that the Team Ineos leader suffered a suspected fractured femur and so was out of the Tour de France.

Van Aert rider set a time of 33:38 for the out and back course that included a climb mid-way, beating Tejay van Garderen by 31 seconds, with Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) third at 47 seconds as the Dutchman continued to recover from the knee injury he suffered on stage 4 of the Giro d'Italia.

Van Aert rode the time trial in the green points jersey after his third place on stage 1 and second place on stage 3.

Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) finished sixth, at 53 seconds and took the race leader's yellow jersey from Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida). However, the overall classification remains wide open, with Teuns second at four seconds, with van Garderen third overall at six seconds and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) fourth at seven seconds. Van Aert's victory moved him up 11 places in the general classification to ninth place at 30 seconds.

The 24-year-old Belgian gave Jumbo-Visma their 24th season victory, but it was his first-ever WorldTour victory. Van Aert has won a number of lower-level races and was third at Strade Bianche and the E3 BinckBank Classic but confirmed the depth of talents just three weeks before he makes his Tour de France debut.

"It's a big one. It's a first WorldTour stage win. I can't believe it," Van Aert said with a beaming smile before climbing on the winner's podium.

"We worked on my TT skills the past few weeks, but I didn't know it was possible to win on this level. I'm super happy."

The climb mid-stage hit the chances of the pure time triallist but allowed Van Aert to showcase his power and bike skills.

"This morning we did the recce, and I realised it's a beautiful TT course: a lot of straight roads, a difficult climb in the middle and then it was just full gas coming back to the finish which was mainly downhill. Obviously, it was a good course for me. It's always suffering in a TT, but today it was worth it," he said.

The virtual GC remains close

With a similar individual time trial in the Tour de France in Pau in a few weeks time, the Roanne time trial was considered a vital dress rehearsal for a much bigger stage in July.

Riders were testing new bikes and new time trial positions in the hope of saving few seconds. As ever, technique and aptitude counted as much as training and equipment, with the results indicating who are overall contenders for the yellow jersey at the Critérium du Dauphiné and perhaps the yellow jersey at the Tour de France.

Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) was the best in this weeks virtual GC race, finishing 49 seconds slower than his teammate van Aert. However, he missed out on the race lead after dropping 31 seconds behind many of his rivals on stage 2. That helped Yates pull on the yellow jersey, but the virtual GC is still close, especially considering the days in the Alps that are yet to come.

Considering his superb spring and 2017 Critérium du Dauphiné victory, Fuglsang is arguably now the biggest threat to Yates and is only seven seconds down, Kruijswijk moved up 13 places to fifth at 24 seconds, with Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) fighting his time trial position to stay in contention in sixth place at 25 seconds. Of course, it would be wrong to right-off Teuns too. He won the 2017 Tour de Pologne and was third at last year's Il Lombardia.

Other overall contenders now find themselves on the wrong side of the 30-second divide after struggling in the time trial.

Nairo Quintana (Movistar) slipped to tenth and is 40 seconds down, with Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) 12th at 54 seconds, Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) at a more distant 1:13 and Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) at 1:27.

Wout Poels tried to stay focused despite seeing Froome crash hard during their joint recon ride. He was off the pace and slipped to eleventh overall, at 40 seconds.

Yates put up a gutsy ride to finish sixth and appeared ready to fight for every second between now and Sunday's final mountain stage.

"We knew today was going to be a hard day. I knew for sure I was going to lose sometime, but it was a pretty good course for me," the British rider said.

"The long straights aren't my [strengths], but I just put my head down and got to the climb as quickly as possible. Once I got over the top, it was just suffering all the way to the line."

Yates was pragmatic about how he and Mitchelton-Scott will defend his slim lead and yellow jersey.

"We have one sprint stage tomorrow (Thursday), so hopefully the sprint teams will help us control, and then it's straight to the mountains. It's going to be tricky. For sure, in the mountain stages, it will be hard to control. But we're in the jersey now, and hopefully we can hold it all the way to the end," he said.

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