British rider almost catches Cadel Evans over 53.5km test and extends his overall lead over everybody
Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) emphatically asserted his Tour de France credentials with a dominant victory in the Critérium du Dauphiné stage four time trial, between Villié-Morgon and Bourg-en-Bresse. The former British time trial champion completed the 53.5km course in a time of 1:03:12, in an average speed of 50.79kph, to finish 34 seconds ahead of World time trial champion Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step). Wiggins’ teammate Michael Rogers was 1’11” behind his captain in third place.
“This was a super good course for me,” said Wiggins afterwards. “It was really my thing although there was a lot wind. I’ve trained all my life for that.”
Starting last, overall leader Wiggins almost caught 2011 Tour winner Cadel Evans – who had started two minutes before him but dropped his drinks bidon early in the course – and the Briton now leads Martin by 38 seconds overall, with Rogers in third at 1’20”. Evans slipped from second to fifth overall and now trails the rider, who is tipped to be his biggest rival for a repeat in July, by 1’44” as the race heads to the mountains.
“It’s not every day that you get the opportunity to beat the world champion,” Wiggins continued. “That’s more important for me than beating Cadel Evans. I got everything out of my own effort. When I’ve seen Cadel ahead of me, it hasn’t changed anything for me. I remained focused on my own effort because I didn’t know what Cadel was doing, if he was focused or not, if he had good feelings or not. If he didn’t have anything to drink, it must have been a real disadvantage on that course today. I knew anyway from the two time checks that I was ahead of him.
“Maybe this is a message for the Tour… but I’m sure that Cadel will increase his level before the Tour,” the British road champion conceded. “For now, we’re at the Dauphiné and the Tour is something else. Last year, Cadel was also behind me at the Dauphiné. I came back here because I won last year. It’s the same this year. I want to win again and I have a good team for making it. We’ve trained for that. The boys have proved they’re strong enough to support me till the end. These guys have showed their fitness. There are still three tough days to come.”
The revelation of the stage was 21-year-old neo-pro Wilco Kelderman (Rabobank), who led the stage for some time and ended up just 1’26” behind Wiggins in fourth place. Tour contender Andy Schleck (RadioShack-Nissan) meanwhile, suffered another blow to his own preparations for July, as he crashed on a right hand bend and finished 10’47” back.
The Australians lay down the best early times but Wilco Kelderman emerges
Arnaud Gerard (FDJ-BigMat) was the first rider to start, but he was caught and passed by Travis Meyer (Orica-GreenEdge) – who had started two minutes behind him – before he had even reached the first checkpoint, after 18km. The Australian, who had also already caught and passed stage one crash victim Dan Martin (Garmin-Barracuda) continued his strong pace, to cross the line first, in a time of 1:07:50.
Meyer’s time was to sit at the top of the leaderboard for less than a quarter of an hour however, as Orica-GreenEdge teammate Durbridge flew around the course. The prologue winner from four days before passed the 18km check in 20’51”, 38 seconds faster than Meyer, then went through the second check after 40km, in 49’48”, 1’57” quicker. The 21-year-old finally stopped the clock in 1:04:50, exactly three minutes quicker than his teammate.
Once posted, Durbridge’s time was to go relatively untroubled for some time, with the biggest incident being a crash for Tour de France contender Andy Schleck (RadioShack-Leopard). The Luxemburger was able to remount and continue, in a discipline he generally suffers in, but had conceded 9’10” to the Australian champion by the time he reached the finish.
Former World time trial champion Bert Grabsch (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) went within 1’32” of Durbridge, laying down markers for teammate Tony Martin, the current holder of the rainbow skinsuit. Team Sky duo Edvald Boasson Hagen and Kanstantsin Siutsou also went close, at 1’01” and 51 seconds behind, also posting markers for their team leader, Bradley Wiggins, later on.
Finally though, more than two hours after Durbridge had started his ride, Wilco Kelderman (Rabobank) went through the 18km check 15 seconds ahead of the Australian. This heralded a spate of faster riders, with three time World time trial champion Michael Rogers (BMC Racing), Luis León Sánchez (Rabobank), David Millar (Garmin-Barracuda), Andrey Amador (Movistar) and Jérôme Coppel (Saur-Sojasun) all going inside Durbridge.
A few riders later, as Kelderman was going through the 40km check, 21 seconds ahead of Durbridge, Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) went 14 seconds faster at the 18km point. Teammate Tony Martin couldn’t match the former French time trial champion, going through four seconds slower.
Kelderman overcooked the final corner, almost losing it against the barriers, but managed to stay upright to cross the line in a new best time of 1:04:38. Chris Froome (Team Sky), having started relatively slowly, accelerated as the stage went on and sprinted across the line just eight seconds behind Kelderman.
The battle for yellow commences and the man in possession is winning
In the battle for the yellow jersey between Cadel Evans and Bradley Wiggins behind them, Evans was 17 seconds behind Chavanel after 18km; this meant that the Australian had conceded his place overall to Chavanel and Martin. While Wiggins was just 11 seconds down, it meant that he too had lost out to the Omega Pharma-Quick Step riders, with Chavanel now the virtual race leader.
Having gone nine seconds faster than Kelderman at the second checkpoint Rogers flew into the finish in 1:04:23, going 14 seconds ahead of the young Dutchman to take the lead. David Millar took the final corner even more spectacularly than Kelderman had done, having to unclip his left foot as he struggled to avoid hitting the barriers, but had faded a little at the end and finished 25 seconds behind.
Chavanel was four seconds slower than Rogers through the 40km point, but Martin – having caught compatriot Paul Martens (Rabobank) for two minutes – was 25 seconds quicker, and getting faster. Evans was beginning to struggle now however, and conceded 1’01” to Martin; Wiggins could see the Australian’s red and black team car ahead of him on a long straight section of road, and was 36 seconds faster than Martin – in 48’17” – meaning that he was only 23 seconds behind Evans on the road.
Chavanel crossed the line in 1:04:45, to go into provisional third behind Kelderman, while teammate Martin sprinted over in 1:03:46 to take the lead.
With the gap so small between them, Evans’ team car had been pulled from between himself and Wiggins, and the British rider in yellow was inching up to the Australian in the closing kilometres. The Australian managed to hold him off however, crossing the line to take provisional seventh place, with 1:04:55; Wiggins was just a few seconds behind him however, to take the stage victory in 1:03:12.