Evenepoel crushes Vingegaard and Pogacar, and takes the GC lead after dominating in important Dauphiné time trial

After the spectacle of the first three days, where we saw some crazy things on day one, it was time for the time trial on Wednesday. The stage was not too long—17.4 kilometers—but with a steep climb in the middle—1.6 kilometers at no less than 9.4 percent—it was certainly not going to be an easy day for the GC contenders. With temperatures in the Ardèche set to reach 30 degrees Celsius, the heat added an extra layer of difficulty for the riders.

At quarter past two, Domen Novak (UAE Emirates-XRG) was the first rider to attempt the time trial. It would take another half hour before we saw the first real target time, set by Tobias Foss (INEOS Grenadiers), while the GC contenders would not start until later in the afternoon.

After Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X) had secured the hot seat with a time of 23 minutes, it didn't take long for his compatriot Foss to knock him off the top spot. The INEOS powerhouse beat Wærenskjold's time by a full minute and soon saw his young teammate, Michael Leonard, take second place on the virtual leaderboard.

Thibault Guernalec came close to Foss' time, but the Frenchman from Arkéa-B&B Hotels ultimately had to concede nine seconds to his Danish rival. Meanwhile, Rémi Cavagna (Groupama-FDJ) was another fast rider from France on the road, while Sepp Kuss (Visma | Lease a Bike) marked the long-awaited start of the classification riders.

Cavagna beat Foss' time by three seconds, knocking the Dane off the hot seat fairly early on. How long the Frenchman would remain the fastest was still unsure, as the first GC contenders were already en route.

Wednesday was, of course, also marked by the final time trial in Romain Bardet's professional career. The Frenchman took on the challenge against the clock, cheered on by the crowd lining the route, but, as so often in his career, it was not a time trial to remember. In his farewell tour, Bardet clocked a time of just over 23 minutes, which was good for a virtual 18th place.

With the French veteran's finish, it was time for the favorites to set off. Evenepoel was the first to do so, although Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike) was twelve seconds behind Cavagna's intermediate time (at 10.5 kilometers after the climb) at that point. Evenepoel was the first of the favorites to start, followed by Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG).

Jorgenson finished a very strong time trial with a time of 21 minutes and 28 seconds, just under half a minute behind Cavagna. This put the American in the hot seat, although with all the top riders still to come, it was anyone's guess how long he would stay there.

Romeo, the last rider of the day, had also set off, so now it was time to wait for the first intermediate times of the favorites. Evenepoel was no less than 31 seconds (!) under Jorgenson's time at the intermediate point, which meant that the Belgian seemed to be heading for a clear victory. At the same point, Vingegaard was eleven seconds behind Evenepoel, while Pogacar was half a minute slower than the Belgian and thus almost twenty seconds slower than Vingegaard.

The question was whether Evenepoel could keep up his excellent start. The answer was a very convincing yes, as the Belgian set the best time with an incredible performance. Vingegaard failed to match the Belgian's time and lost twenty seconds, while Pogacar lost a lot more time at the finish line. The Slovenian was 49 seconds slower than Evenepoel and, thus, 28 seconds slower than Vingegaard.

The final question of the day was whether Romeo could keep his yellow jersey. The young Spaniard did everything he could, but he was already more than a minute behind Evenepoel at the intermediate point. That didn't leave the Movistar rider much margin. At the finish line, it became clear that Romeo, despite a brave attempt, would have to hand over his leader's jersey to the stage winner.