Porte puts Tour rivals on notice with time trial victory
Richie Porte en route to victory in the fourth stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Richie Porte (BMC Racing) fired a shot across the bow of his Tour de France rivals Wednesday at the Critérium du Dauphiné, taking victory in the stage 4 time trial and building his case as one of the favourites for victory in July.
Porte covered the 23.5km race against the clock from La Tour-du-Pin to Bourgoin-Jallieu in 28:07, 12 seconds faster than time trial world champion Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin) and 24 seconds better than Alejandro Valverde (Movistar). Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) and Chris Froome (Team Sky) finished seventh and eighth, respectively, losing 35 and 37 seconds to Porte.
Stef Clement (LottoNL-Jumbo), Chad Haga (Team Sunweb) and Jasha Sütterlin (Movistar) put in top rides to finish fourth, fifth and sixth, while overall leader Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) retained his overall lead with ninth place, 42 seconds behind Porte. BMC's Brent Bookwalter rounded out the top 10, 45 seconds back.
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