Today the Critérium du Dauphiné 2013 offered a time trial to the riders and in this individual effort it was, not completely surprisingly, the World Champion time trialing, Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), who won with quite an important gap on his main competitors.

Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp), second of today's stage, takes the yellow and blue leader's jersey of the general classification.

The summary of the 4th stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2013: Villars-les-Dombes > Parc des Oiseaux

The 172 riders of the peloton of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2013 started individually for a 32.5 kilometer long race around Villars-les-Dombes, towards Parc des Oiseaux, under a blue sky brightened up by the sun.

David Veilleux (Europcar) started last, with a 1'56" gap on his first competitor in the general classification and he knew beforehand that it would be difficult to keep his jersey.

Jack Bauer (Garmin-Sharp) is the first rider to register a real reference time, at 39'32, which means he had an average speed of 49.32 km/h but right from the first intermediate timing points it became clear that Jan Barta (Team NetApp-Endura), national time trial champion in the Czech Republic, would go under this time. And that's what he did at the finish because he took off 4 seconds of this reference time and was the first rider to have an average speed above 50 kilometers an hour.

Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), who started 82nd, however simply crushed the time by finishing today's stage in 36'54". With his average speed of 52.84 km/h, the German rider seemed immediately unbeatable, despite his health problems these past few days.

At the first intermediate timing point, Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) seemed to be able to get very close to the time of his team mate, but at the second intermediate timing point it was Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp)'s turn to take the second best time and to start believing in a very good result in this stage. He confirmed that at the finish where he indeed took the second time, at 47 seconds from Tony Martin, while Kwiatkowski finished with a 1'13" delay on the German rider.

Chris Froome (Team Sky) took the 3rd time, at 52 seconds from Martin, which is a good sign looking forward to the Tour de France which is coming up in only 24 days.

David Veilleux (Europcar), who started last, remained the virtual leader of the race at the two intermediate timing points but in the last part of the stage, the Canadian rider showed a performance under the one, quite impressive in this part of the stage, of Rohan Dennis and the yellow and blue jersey thus went to the Australian rider. Rohan Dennis will thus wear this jersey at the start of the 5th stage between Grésy-sur-Aix and Valmorel tomorrow.

The classifications of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2013 after the 4th stage

The classification of the 4th stage: Villars-les-Dombes > Parc des Oiseaux

Here's the top 10 of today's stage:

1/ Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - 36'54"
2/ Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp) - +0'47"
3/ Chris Froome (Team Sky) - +0'52"
4/ Jonathan Castroviejo (Movistar Team) - +1'08"
5/ Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - +1'13"
6/ Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) - +1'19"
7/ Richie Porte (Team Sky) - +1'20"
8/ Jan Barta (Team NetApp-Endura) - +1'36"
9/ Marco Pinotti (BMC Racing Team) - +1'38"
10/ Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) - +1'42"

After the finish, Tony Martin, the winner of this time trial, explained that the stomach bug he had 2 days ago was almost gone: I was feeling better already yesterday, it wasn't completely gone and I thus didn't do my best performance but it went quite well anyway.

Concerning his victory today and the time gaps in this stage, Tony Martin insisted mostly on the fact that he was quite surprised by the second placed rider in this time trial, precising that he didn't know him!

General classification

As expected the general classification is completely modified after this time trial. Here's the new top 5:

1/ Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp) - 12h40'00"
2/ Chris Froome (Team Sky) - +0'05"
3/ Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - +0'26"
4/ Edvald Boasson-Hagen (Team Sky) - +0'32"
5/ Richie Porte (Team Sky) - +0'33"

Rohan Dennis, the new leader of the general classification was, like Tony Martin, really surprised by his performance: I knew I was in good shape but I didn't expect to beat riders like Froome, Porte or Rogers, I would have been happy already to be close to them.

Separated for only 5 seconds from his first competitor, Dennis explained: I didn't really think about the question whether I will try to keep the jersey and if so how, because I didn't really expect to take it. It would really be a big sacrifice for the team to keep it.

Rohan Dennis is a rider coming from the track and his performance today, which he qualified as his best time trial ever, was thus a surprise for quite a lot of people. At the press conference he indicated that he has a lot of track cycling the past few years, with the goal to take the golden medal at the teams pursuit at the Olympic Games but that's now over: this year I learn a lot on the road, it's quite difficult, there are some ups but much more downs, but the Garmin-Sharp team is really good, they're helping me a lot. The track is now over for me, I hope my road career will now take off ...

Points classification

In the points classification, Chris Froome (Team Sky) enters the top 5 which remains unchanged otherwise:

1/ Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - 34 points
2/ Elia Viviani (Cannondale Pro Cycling) - 21 points
3/ David Veilleux (Europcar) - 20 points
4/ Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) - 20 points
5/ Chris Froome (Team Sky) - 16 points

King of the Mountain classification

No changes in this classification since there were no points to be awarded today:

1/ Thomas Damuseau (Team Argos-Shimano) - 55 points
2/ David Veilleux (Europcar) - 40 points
3/ Ricardo Garcia Ambroa (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - 28 points
4/ Jean-Marc Bideau (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) - 24 points
5/ Arnaud Gérard (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) - 15 points

Young riders classification

The top 5 of the young riders classification changes a bit as well, with Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp) now leading this classification as well. The number 2 of today's stage will however wear the white jersey tomorrow because he's also second in this classification after this stage:

1/ Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp) - 12h40'00"
2/ Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - +0'26"
3/ Tony Gallopin (Radioshack-Leopard) - +1'49"
4/ Alexandre Geniez (FDJ) - +2'05"
5/ Dominik Nerz (BMC Racing Team) - +2'13"

The photos of the 4th stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné: Villars-les-Dombes > Parc des Oiseaux

You can find 288 photos of this individual time trial by clicking on the following link:

>> the photos of the time trial Villars-les-Dombes > Parc des Oiseaux of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2013

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Critérium du Dauphiné 2013 | Criterium du Dauphiné

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