Van der Poel surprises winner Ayuso with excellent time trial and takes back the lead

Juan Ayuso won the fourth stage of the Tour of Luxembourg. In a 15.5-kilometer time trial around Differdange, the Spaniard riding for UAE Team Emirates was ultimately the fastest. However, in terms of the general classification, Ayuso did not manage to land a double whammy, as Mathieu van der Poel rode an excellent time trial and took back the lead from Mauri Vansevenant. He enters the final day with a three-second advantage over both Ayuso and the Belgian.

Vansevenant had seized control on the third day of the Tour of Luxembourg with a stage victory from a late breakaway. He defended a 32-second lead over second-placed Van der Poel and 45 seconds over third-placed Marc Hirschi. A comfortable gap, but were his time trial skills enough to keep the yellow leader's jersey?

As always, the early hours of the time trial were a search for contenders for the stage victory. As usual in such time trials, Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) convincingly threw his hat in the ring. The Dane clocked the fastest intermediate time in the opening phase and remained the fastest of the bunch to cross the finish for a long time. Lorenzo Milesi (Movistar) came closest to his time, trailing by merely nine seconds.

Pedersen was able to take a break for lunch, as no one outside the top twenty came close to his best time. It was a matter of waiting for the specialists in the general classification, with Juan Ayuso leading the charge. The Spaniard (UAE Team Emirates) was having one of those top days, where he barely felt his legs. He was six seconds faster at the intermediate point and added another five seconds at the finish.

After Wilco Kelderman and Bart Lemmen (Visma | Lease a Bike) disappointed with a half-minute deficit to Ayuso, the top three in the classification took to the course: Hirschi, Van der Poel and finally Vansevenant. The Belgian needed to stay within 54 seconds of Ayuso to keep the lead, which was the key focus.

Antonio Tiberi lived up to his time trial reputation with a second-place finish, seven seconds behind Ayuso, while Van der Poel and Hirschi showed their excellent form with second and fourth fastest intermediate times, respectively. Vansevenant limited his losses to 20 seconds at the first time check.

At the finish, the standings remained the same. Ayuso could celebrate, with Hirschi trailing by 14 seconds. Van der Poel rode an outstanding time trial and, with a 19-second deficit and a fifth-place finish in the stage, could hope for the yellow jersey. Everyone held their breath waiting for Vansevenant, who had a 32-second advantage over Van der Poel but ultimately lost the leader’s jersey to the Dutchman by just three seconds.