Porte’s storming performance puts him in box seat

RICHIE Porte put himself in the driver’s seat for overall victory in the Criterium du Dauphine after 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 off 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 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 onto 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 two-time 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.

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 team-mate and one-time super-domestique 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.

Froome admitted the time trial results meant he will need to be aggressive when the road ramps up.

“It changes the dynamic,” he said on the Team Sky website. “If I’d gained time today then I could have ridden more defensively on the climbs. Now that I’ve got time to make up it means I can be more offensive going into the next few days.

“It was a good test but we’ve got three big days of climbing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. That will be another big test to see exactly where everyone is at.”