Porte time trials into Dauphine driving seat
Richie Porte put himself in the driver’s seat for overall victory in the Criterium du Dauphine when he won yesterday’s stage four time trial as Chris Froome only managed seventh place.
Porte’s winning time of 28 minutes and seven seconds on the 23.5km course from La Tour-du-pin to Bourgoin-jallieu was not enough to take the race leader’s jersey from Belgian Thomas De Gendt, but the Tasmanian comfortably distanced the other general classification contenders to make a big statement.
The BMC rider won the stage by 12 seconds from Germany’s world time trial champion Tony Martin (Katusha-alpecin), with Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) the best of the other GC hopefuls with third place, 24 seconds down on Porte.
“I didn’t expect to win today and certainly not by this much on to the other GC contenders,” Porte said on the race website.
“Of course it’s always nice to win races. Winning a time trial probably gives even more confidence.
“I’m happy with where I am at so close to the Tour de France. With a bit of luck, it can be a good Tour de France for me this year.”
Trek-segafredo’s twotime Tour de France winner Alberto Contador was seventh on the day, 35 seconds back, two seconds and one place better off than Team Sky’s Froome. Britain’s Simon Yates (Orica-scott) finished in 19th place, giving up 62 seconds to Porte.
That leaves Porte 27 seconds back on De Gendt overall with four stages remaining of a race seen as a major test of form ahead of the Tour.
Valverde is 51 seconds off the race leader in third, with Contador at 62 seconds back in fifth place.
Froome, who is looking to win this race for a record fourth time, is sixth, 64 seconds off De Gendt and 37 seconds off his former teammate and one-time superdomestique Porte. Froome is aiming to win the Tour for a fourth time this summer, with each of his previous wins in 2013, 2015 and 2016 preceded by victory here.
It is all set up for a fascinating battle as the mountains loom. After today’s relatively flat 175.5km stage from La Tour-de-salvagny to Macon, the race will conclude with three mountainous tests.
This year’s Tour de France gets under way in Dusseldorf, Germany on 1 July.