Van Aert moves into Paris-Nice lead with time trial victory

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Jumbo-Visma pulled off another 1-2-3 at Paris-Nice, with Wout van Aert winning the stage 4 time trial and joined on the podium by Primož Roglič and Rohan Dennis.

The Belgian clocked 16:20 on the rolling 13.4km course in Montluçon, beating Roglič by two seconds and Dennis by six seconds.

It was a double reward for Van Aert as he moved into the overall lead, taking the yellow jersey off the shoulders of another teammate, Christophe Laporte, as Jumbo-Visma consolidated their occupation of the top three positions overall, as well.

Despite the drama of the opening stages, the stage 4 time trial was the first clear-cut day for the overall contenders, and Roglič dealt further blows to his general classification rivals. Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco) produced a storming ride to place fifth and limit his losses to just nine seconds but Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) shipped a costly 1:15, while the likes of Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) and Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) hovered in between.

Dennis started early and occupied the hotseat for most of the day but was ousted at the last minute as Van Aert and Roglič started in the final three along with Laporte.

None of them could match Simon Yates’ time at the intermediate checkpoint at kilometre-7 but, crucially, they all kept something in store for the second half of the course and especially the sharp climb to the line, which hit 8.6 per cent for 700 metres.

First it was Roglič who stormed up the final ramps to beat Dennis by four seconds but, just two minutes later, Van Aert came through, spittle swinging from his jaw, to snatch the spoils. That left Laporte, who claimed a creditable 11th place to maintain the team’s overall 1-2-3, even if he slipped to the bottom of it.

European champion Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) slotted into fourth, 10 seconds down on Van Aert, while UAE Tour TT winner Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost) could only manage eighth at 21 seconds.

“Until now it’s been a perfect week. We’ve really attacked this race and shown what we’re here for. Today everyone was motivating each other and it results again in a nice podium,” Van Aert said.

“Our coach planned the winning time around 17 minutes then Rohan did a 16.25 so in the bus we were worried if we could beat him. It was a hard effort to manage because it was always up and down - not one steady rhythm - and for the last steep part you needed something left. I managed to save something on the downhill, making myself as aero as possible, then went full gas on the climbs.”

In the overall standings, Van Aert now leads the race by 10 seconds over Roglič, with Laporte third at 28 seconds. Roglič is the clear GC leader for Jumbo-Visma as the race now heads for the hills, and he added handsomely to the head-start he’d made thanks to the team’s original 1-2-3 on the opening stage.

Simon Yates has emerged as his closest challenger, the Briton putting in one of the best time trials of his career to concede just nine seconds to Roglič and 11 to Van Aert. He jumps 16 places on GC and now lies fourth overall but is still 39 seconds down on Roglič. Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies) was another strong performer placing seventh on the stage at 19 seconds to move to fifth overall, just two seconds behind Yates.

Of the Ineos Grenadiers leaders, Dani Martínez fared far better than Adam Yates, with the Colombian taking 10th place as his teammate could only manage 19th. The Colombian now sits seventh overall, 56 seconds down on Roglič, while Yates is 11th at 1:11.

Vlasov put in a strong ride to place 12th on the day and now finds himself among the fight for the podium, three seconds behind Martínez.

It was a more damaging afternoon for others. Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) shipped just over a minute, while Quintana lost 1:15 to Roglič over the relatively short distance. The Colombian has been flying in the early season with wins at Tour de la Provence and Tour du Var but he’ll have to summon something truly spectacular to topple Roglič on the Col du Turini or elsewhere and make it a hat trick.