Top Ganna edges Van Aert
June 8 th 2022 - 16:54
Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) asserted his dominance on stage 4 of the Critérium du Dauphiné, taking victory at La Bâtie d’Urfé 2’’ ahead of Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma).
The time-trial World Champion made the most of the 31.9km long opportunity laid out for him on stage 4 of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2022 with an impressive speed of almost 54km/h.
Already 2nd yesterday and winner of stage 1, Van Aert dominates the overall standings 53’’ ahead of Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl’s Mattia Cattaneo (+53’’) and his two Jumbo-Visma companions Primoz Roglic (+56'') and Jonas Vingegaard (+1’26’’) ahead of the main mountainous challenges.
Durbridge raises the stakes
The parade of riders is launched by Matthew Walls, 148th and last in the general classification, but the British sprinter is not the first to reach the finish as Dries Van Gestel overtakes him and sets a reference of 38'56''. Miguel Heidemann and then Mathias Norsgaard Jorgensen succeed him as provisional leaders of the classification. Soon after, Luke Durbrige ups the ante quite seriously. Winner of a Dauphiné prologue precisely ten years ago, the Australian completes the course at an average speed of 52.56km/h which may allow him to aim for a nice result at the end of the day... but it doesn’t seem to be enough to fend off the expert warming up behind him.
Ganna flies at 53.86kmh
Filippo Ganna quickly shows he’s in a strong form, already putting 19’’ between his time and Durbridge’s after 21km. Some 10km further, the margin had swollen to 39'', and it eventually reached 53'' at the finish. The world champion let his raw power do the talking on a favourable course, almost reaching 54km/h on average over 31.9km to set a time of 35’32’’.
Hayter and co shine for Ineos Grenadiers
The rival who comes the closest to edge Ganna is his own teammate Ethan Hayter. The British ITT champion trails by 30’’ after 21km, and he eventually finishes with a gap of 17’’. He is, so far, the only rider to have been faster than Ganna in the final stretch. Their Ineos Grenadiers teammates Tao Geoghegan Hart (37’03’’) and Michal Kwiatkowski (37’13’’) also get a spot in the provisional top 10, while Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl’s Mattia Cattaneo takes the 3rd place away from Durbridge with a time of 36’25’’ (39’’ behind Ganna). It’s up to the Jumbo-Visma strong rouleurs to try and turn the tables.
Jumbo-Visma can’t get the best of Ganna
Primoz Roglic sets off at 15:46, and Wout van Aert is the last rider to go, 14 minutes later. Their companion Jonas Vingegaard has given them interesting references as he set a time of 36’44’’. Van Aert is off to a flying start, 10’’ ahead of Ganna at the first intermediate point and 18’’ ahead of Roglic, who finishes in the provisional 4th position, with a gap of 41’’ to Ganna. Van Aert is also unable to match the Italian’s pace over the full course, eventually losing for a mere 2’’. The Belgian increases his lead overall, 53’’ ahead of Mattia Cattaneo (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), while Roglic already moves to P3 (+56’’) ahead of the main mountain stages.
Filippo Ganna: “We can only say chapeau to Van Aert”
"Every time we are close. Van Aert is very strong, yesterday he was already really close to victory. He’s a superb athlete and we can only say chapeau to him. It was a pretty good course for me. This morning, when we saw it was raining, I thought it was not gonna be a good day, but luckily the Sun came and we had the same conditions for all the riders. Copenhagen is coming close, but I have to wait and see if I’ll be there."
