It was a Danish day on the stage 4 time trial at the Critérium du Dauphiné as Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates) claimed the stage victory and the yellow jersey, while Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) laid the foundations for the overall title.
Vingegaard looked on course for the stage win and yellow as he set the fastest time at the first intermediate checkpoint, but he faded in the grinding final third of the 31.1km course and had to settle for second place on the day.
Remi Cavagna (Soudal-QuickStep) was another rider to fade after a fast start, and he was bumped down to the final podium spot after spending a big chunk of time in the hot seat.
The 31.1km course from Cours to Belmont-de-la-Loire was roughly divided into three, with an uphill start and longer downhill section to the first checkpoint at kilometre-10.7, then a flatter 9km mid-section, and finally the 11.4km false flat grind that wound up to gradients of 6% in the home straight.
While Vingegaard and Cavagna both reached the finish on fumes, Bjerg paced his effort to perfection. He was some 20 seconds down on Vingegaard's benchmark at the first checkpoint, then drew level with both his compatriot and Cavagna by the second, and roared out in front on the key uphill part of the course.
"I've worked so hard for this first pro victory. I'm just so relieved that I finally got it now," said Bjerg. "I feel like I had so many chances to do it and just didn't live up to my own expectations.
"This morning I doubted myself, I said the course was too hard, but my manager texted me saying 'just go for it, you have nothing to lose'. I'm just so happy."
The GC complexion
After three sprints, the time trial was the first key day in the battle for the overall title, and there were some significant time gaps created ahead of the mountains.
With Vingegaard the benchmark, as the best finisher of the GC favourites, only a handful of riders got within a minute of the Tour de France champion.
Ben O'Connor (AG2R Citroën), third overall last year behind Vingegaard and his victorious teammate Primož Roglič, set himself up for another podium as he finished just 29 seconds down, while Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) admirably limited the damage to a still-damaging 45 seconds.
Dani Martínez (Ineos Grenadiers) conceded 55 seconds, while his teammate Egan Bernal looked still far from his best at nearly two and a half minutes down.
Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) produced a good ride to place 13th on the stage, 56 seconds down on Vingegaard, while Jack Haig was at 1:03, sandwiching GC outsider and stage 2 winner Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) at a minute square. Matteo Jorgenson finished 18th at 1:25, more than a minute quicker than his Movistar teammate Enric Mas, who has already struggled so far this week.
The damage was much more considerable for other big names, with Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious), and Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) joining Bernal and Mas in losing in the region of 2:30 to Vingegaard.
David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) fared a little better, despite being passed by Hindley, but still shipped 2:10 – deficits that will be extremely difficult to recover in the mountain stages to come.
"Of course, I would hope to win the stage and take the yellow jersey but Mikkel did a really good TT today. I think I also did a good TT but it was really impressive by Mikkel," said Vingegaard, who suggested he started too eagerly.
"It was the plan to go off hard, but maybe I went a bit too hard. I tried to save a bit in the middle then go again for the last part, but when I had to go, there was nothing to go with."
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