Jonas Vingegaard endured a day of blended feelings through the 31km Critérium du Dauphiné time trial on Wednesday, lacking out on the stage victory and race chief’s yellow jersey however gaining important time on most of his general rivals.
The 2022 Tour de France winner completed 12 seconds down on stage winner Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Crew Emirates) and can head into the mountain phases of the weeklong race with the identical 12-second deficit.
Rémi Cavagna (Soudal-QuickStep) was third on the stage at 27 seconds, whereas Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) was fourth at 34 seconds, simply 22 seconds slower than Vingegaard.
Vingegaard appeared set to win the stage when he set the quickest time on the first intermediate checkpoint after 10.5km, however then he pale within the rising closing third of the course and struggled as the road approached and the gradient touched 6%.
“I hoped to win the stage and take the yellow jersey however Mikkel did a extremely good time trial as we speak. I believe I additionally did time trial but it surely was actually spectacular by Mikkel,” Vingegaard mentioned, revealing how he miss-timed his effort.
“It was the plan to go off onerous, however possibly I went a bit too onerous,” he admitted.
“I attempted to save lots of a bit within the center, then go once more for the final half, however after I needed to go, there was nothing to go together with… Perhaps I ought to have been going somewhat bit simpler within the begin, then I would have extra in the long run possibly.”
Defeat did provide some comfort for Vinegaard and his Jumbo-Visma group.
“We do not have to drag tomorrow,” he mentioned of Thursday’s 191 km stage from Cormoranche-sur-Saône to Salins-les-Bains within the northeastern Jura division of France, north of Geneva.
“[Bjerg] will take the jersey however hopefully I can take it within the subsequent few days.”
Regardless of the loss on the stage, Vingegaard gained essential chunks of time on all his common classification rivals.
Australian Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën) was the perfect at limiting his losses. He completed third general final yr behind Vingegaard and set himself up for an additional podium, ending simply 29 seconds down on Vingegaard on Wednesday.
Adam Yates (UAE Crew Emirates) restricted his losses to 45 seconds, whereas Dani Martínez (Ineos Grenadiers) conceded 55 seconds and Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) misplaced 56 seconds.
The harm was way more appreciable for the opposite riders, nearly ending their general hopes for the Critérium du Dauphiné and serving as a warning for the quickly approaching Tour de France.
David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) misplaced 2:10, Richard Carapaz (EF Schooling-EasyPost) 2:27, Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) 2:37 and Enric Mas (Movistar) 2:38.
The USA’s Matteo Jorgenson completed 18th at 1:25, greater than a minute faster than his Movistar group chief regardless of crashing throughout stage 3.
Egan Bernal will not be focusing on the general classification of the Critérium du Dauphiné and misplaced 2:25.
Stage 2 winner Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep), who was near taking the race lead earlier than an premature puncture on stage 3, misplaced 1:00 and slipped to eighth general, falling additional away from the maillot jaune.
Bjerg and UAE Crew Emirates will journey Thursday’s fifth stage as race leaders, with Vingegaard at 12 seconds, Wright third at 34 seconds and O’Connor fourth at 41 seconds.
