BMC’s Richie Porte conquered the 23.5km time trial from La Tour-du-Pin to Bourgoin-Jallieu southeast of Lyon, in a lightening fast 28:07, to take stage four of the Criterium du Dauphine.
The time the Australian has gained will give him a significant advantage on his GC rivals when the Dauphine hits the big mountains on Friday and the weekend.
South Africa’s Darryl Impey, riding for Orica-Scott, put in a brilliant performance and held the top time of 29:02 until Sunweb’s Chad Haga came in on 28:39 to take the hot seat.
South Africa’s Darryl Impey, riding for Orica-Scott, put in a brilliant performance in the stage 4 time trial of the Criterium du Dauphine. Photo: facebook.com/CriteriumDuDauphine/
Haga was later surpassed by world time trial champion Tony Martin, of Katusha-Alpecin, who set an impressive time of 28:19 to beat.
Not to be outdone, Porte, upped the ante. Two seconds behind Martin at the 10.7km time check, he stopped the clock at 28:07, a full 13 seconds faster than the German.
Porte was overjoyed to have won and gained time on his GC rivals.
“I didn’t expect to either win the stage or take that much time. But I’ve really worked hard on my time trialing this year. It’s been a long time since I’ve done a good time trial, so to do what I did today makes me really happy,” he said before the podium ceremony.
Stage four results
| Rider | Time | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team | 0:28:07 |
| 2. | Tony Martin (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin | +12" |
| 3. | Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team | +24" |
| 4. | Stef Clement (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo | +28" |
| 5. | Chad Haga (USA) Team Sunweb | +32" |
| 6. | Jasha Sütterlin (Ger) Movistar Team | " |
| 7. | Alberto Contador (Spa) Trek-Segafredo | +35" |
| 8. | Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky | +37" |
| 9. | Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Lotto Soudal | +42" |
| 10. | Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team | +45" |
General classification
| Rider | Time | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Thomas de Gendt - Lotto Soudal | 13:05:53 |
| 2. | Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team | +27" |
| 3. | Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team | +51" |
| 4. | Stef Clement (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo | +55" |
| 5. | Alberto Contador (Spa) Trek-Segafredo | +1:02' |
| 6. | Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky | +1:04' |
| 7. | Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team | +1:12' |
| 8. | Jesus Herrada (Spa) Movistar Team | +1:15' |
| 9. | Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Sunweb | +1:17' |
| 10. | Diego Ulissi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates | +1:22' |
