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Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel has taken the overall lead of the Criterium du Dauphine after victory in the time trial on stage 4.<\/b><\/p>\n
The reigning Olympic and world time trial champion beat nearest rival Jonas Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike by 21 seconds on the 17.4km course.<\/p>\n
Soudal-Quick Step’s Evenepoel, considered to be the world’s third best rider, will be competing against rivals Tadej Pogacar and Denmark’s Vingegaard at the Tour de France next month.<\/p>\n
Reigning Tour champion Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates-XRG was a surprising 49 seconds down on the day to Evenepoel in a discipline in which the Slovenian is often peerless.<\/p>\n
Pogacar trails Evenepoel by 38 seconds in the general classification, with Vingegaard 16 seconds down in fifth place. <\/p>\n
Germany’s Florian Lipowitz of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe is second in the GC, four seconds down.<\/p>\n
“I’m very happy with this victory – the thousandth for the team,” said Evenepoel after completing the course in his special Olympic gold helmet. “This one is for Patrick [Lefevere, former boss] – for everything he did for the team.<\/p>\n
“I think in terms of [my] weight, it’s already pretty good – much better than last year – I’ve been working super hard behind the scenes.” <\/p>\n
The race, which takes place across the Dauphine region of south-east France, is the traditional warm-up for the Tour.<\/p>\n
Only four times in the last 10 editions has the overall winner gone on to be victorious in the Tour.<\/p>\n
Spaniard Ivan Romeo of Movistar lost the yellow jersey after victory on stage three<\/a>, finishing one min 25 secs down to Evenepoel.<\/p>\n The eight-day stage race moves on to Saint Priest on Thursday for a hilly 183km test to Macon. <\/p>\n Saturday’s stage is likely to see the most explosive action with three hugely steep hors category climbs in the French Alps to Valmeinier. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n