Critérium du Dauphiné: Alexey Lutsenko stuns with stage 4 time trial victory

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Alexey Lutsenko stormed to a surprise stage win on stage 4 of the Critérium du Dauphiné, as Ion Izagirre made it a 1-2 for Astana-Premier Tech.

Lutsenko rode a negative split to clock 21:36 on the undulating 16.4km course between Firminy and Roche-la-Molière, beating his teammate by eight seconds while Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-QuickStep) finished third at nine seconds.

Lutsenko’s ride wasn’t enough to take the yellow jersey, as Lukas Postlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe) mounted a valiant defence of the overall lead to finish ninth on the stage and hold off Lutsenko by a single second in the overall standings.

Whereas the Astana-Premier Tech duo came strong in the second half of the course, Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) started strong and was quickest through the intermediate checkpoint, but faded and finished 10th, 24 seconds down on Lutsenko.

His teammate, Richie Porte, finished sixth on the stage as Ineos Grenadiers nevertheless put themselves in a strong position in advance of the mountain stages, although Tao Geoghegan Hart could only manage 34th place.

After Izagirre, the best of the pre-race GC contender was Wilco Kelderman (Bora-Hansgrohe), who was second at the checkpoint and fourth on the stage at 12 seconds. The top five was rounded out by Ilan Van Wilder (Team DSM) in the white jersey as best young rider, while Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Brandon McNutly (UAE Team Emirates) earned spots in the top 10, although both are already out of overall contention.

Vingegaard’s teammate and leader, Steven Kruijswijk had a slightly disappointing ride to finish 19th at 39 seconds, while the team’s other option, Sepp Kuss, was among the worst GC finishers at 1:17. Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) were also in that bracket, as were the Movistar duo of Enric Mas and Alejandro Valverde, although the Spanish team’s third option, Miguel Angel López, continued his recent time trialling form by finishing 20th at 42 seconds.

Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën) and Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) had strong rides to finish in the top 15, just outside half a minute down, while David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) was somewhere in the middle with a solid enough 29th place at 59 seconds.

In the overall standings, Postlberger leads Lutsenko by one second, with Asgreen third at nine seconds, on the same time as Izagirre. Kelderman is fourth at 13 seconds, a second ahead of Van Wilder, while Porte and Thomas are seventh and eighth, 16 and 24 seconds down on Lutsenko, respectively.

“It might be a surprise but I did my maximum,” said Lutsenko. “I’ve done a lot of work on my TT bike at altitude at Teide, and the up and down courses are perfect for me.”

How it unfolded

The 16.4km course featured barely a metre of flat, with some nasty ramps and fast downhill sections. The most sustained climb came through the mid-point, with around two kilometres at 4.4 per cent, followed by three subsequent kickers, the last of which took the riders to the line.

Ivo Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates) was the first rider off, but it was Josef Cerny (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Tony Martin (Jumbo-Visma), Ryan Mullen (Trek-Segafredo) and Gevin Geniets (Groupama-FDJ) who set the early benchmarks.

The leaderboard was then topped by 22-year-old Australian neo-pro Harry Sweeny (Lotto Soudal), but his lead didn’t last long, as Vingegaard stormed the latter part of the course to set a time of 21:53.

The quality continued to ratchet up, with Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates) clocking 22:11 and Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) clocking 22:04 for what would turn out to be 11th on the stage.

McNulty then went quickest through the intermediate checkpoint after 7.5km, four seconds up on Vingegaard, but he faded and finished three seconds down on the Dane at the finish.

After a disappointing 23:48 for Chris Froome (Israel Start-Up Nation), it was time for the real GC contenders, and Porte looked to be on a roll when he beat McNulty’s checkpoint time by three seconds and then reached the finish two seconds up on Vingegaard to take the hotseat.

Meanwhile, his teammates were faring differently; Geoghegan Hart already off the pace at the checkpoint while Thomas flew through, seven seconds up on Kelderman, who’d just scorched through with what had been the fastest time, a second up on Porte.

The idea of Ineos putting two riders at the top of the leaderboard, along with Kelderman being there or thereabouts, wasn’t hard to envisage at the start of the day. However, Astana came from nowhere to change the narrative. Afforded almost no time by the television cameras, Izagirre suddenly hit the home straight to take the hotseat, 6.5 seconds up on Port, having been 14th and eight seconds down at the checkpoint.

After Kelderman had finished his solid ride, Lutsenko then came tearing to the finish, passing his minute-man Michael Valgren (EF Education-Nippo) and his two-minute man Greg Van Avermaet (AG2R Citroën) in the home straight. He was up eight seconds on Izagirre at the line and all eyes were on Thomas to see if he could sustain his early pace.

He couldn’t, and was already in the red with 200 metres to go, losing 22 seconds in the end and even finishing behind his teammate Porte.

By that point, Postlberger, who won’t be part of the overall battle at this Dauphiné, was on course nevertheless looking to spend another day in yellow. Thomas fading gave him hope, but Lutsenko’s flying time seemed to spell the end. However, the Austrian attacked the course and produced the ride of his life to set up a dramatic climax, stopping the clock just a second before the overall lead was about to tick over to Lutsenko.