Imperious Wout van Aert takes time trial win on Stage 4 of Paris-Nice ahead of Primoz Roglic, Rohan Dennis
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Updated 09/03/2022 at 15:57 GMT
It was another glorious day for Jumbo-Visma as the team secured a second one-two-three podium sweep at Paris-Nice. Wout van Aert topped the timesheet after the individual time trial on Stage 4 ahead of his team-mates Primoz Roglic and Rohan Dennis. Stream Paris-Nice and much more top cycling action live and on-demand on discovery+
Watch Van Aert rocket to top of time trial timesheet on Stage 4 of Paris-Nice
Wout van Aert stormed to victory in the Stage 4 individual time trial in what was another one-two-three finish for the dominant Jumbo-Visma.
The 27-year-old became the first Belgian rider to pull on the leader's jersey at the event for 11 years as he pulled off a sensational ride under pressure to pip his two team-mates in dramatic fashion.
Dennis led for most of the day, only to be eventually edged out by Van Aert by six seconds with Roglic also squeezing into second ahead of him in a frenetic finish to the action.
"An amazing performance from all of them," said cycling legend Sean Kelly on commentary for Eurosport.
"That was a really strong performance. When you are in the yellow jersey as a team the motivation is really high and that just confirms it."
With his Stage 4 triumph, Van Aert has assumed top spot in the general classification with Roglic 10 seconds back and Laporte a further 18 seconds behind in yet another Jumbo-Visma sweep.
Britain's Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange) is the closest to the trio in fourth place in the GC at 49 seconds back from the Jumbo trio. Yates finished in fifth place on Wednesday with fellow Brit Ethan Hayter (Ineos) just behind him.
The time trial saw the riders negotiate a 13.4km route from Domerat to Montlucon in glorious weather as the 80th edition of the race swept on.
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Jumbo-Visma's Belgian rider Wout Van Aert competes during the 4th stage of the 80th edition of the Paris - Nice cycling race, 13,4 km time trial stage between Domerat and Montlucon
Image credit: Getty Images
While Laporte relinquished the leader's jersey to his team-mate, it has been an auspicious start to the race for the Frenchman, and to his time with the team.
The famous race has certainly delivered the goods so far this week with Laporte leading in a Jumbo-Visma one-two-three in sensational fashion in the opening stage, before Fabio Jakobsen took the second with a fine ride into Orleans.
Mads Pedersen then won Stage 3 with an inspired performance into Dun-le-Palestel as the leader Laporte crashed on the home straight. In spite of that, Jumbo-Visma continued to assert themselves on the general classification.
“Until now it’s been a perfect week," Van Aert said of his victory. "We have really attacked this race and shown what we are here for.
"Today everyone was motivating each other and it results again in a nice podium. Our coach planned the winning time around 17 minutes then Rohan did a 16.25 so in the bus we were worried if we could beat him.
"It was a hard effort to manage because it was always up and down - not one steady rhythm - and for the last steep part you needed something left.
"I managed to save something on the downhill, making myself as aero as possible, then went full gas on the climbs.”
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'Happy with that' - Yates reacts to Stage 4 fifth place, contention at Paris-Nice
Stage 4 results
- 1 - Wout van Aert - Jumbo-Visma 0:16:20
- 2 - Primoz Roglic - Jumbo-Visma +0:02
- 3 - Rohan Dennis - Jumbo-Visma +0:06
- 4 - Stefan Kung - Groupama-FDJ +0:10
- 5 - Simon Yates - BikeExchange-Jayco +0:11
- 6 - Ethan Hayter - Ineos Grenadiers +0:14
- 7 - Pierre Latour - Total Energies +0:19
- 8 - Stefan Bissegger - EF Education-Easy Post +0:21
- 9 - Mads Pedersen - Trek-Segafredo +0:25
- 10 - Daniel Martinez Poveda - Ineos Grenadiers +0:28
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'Perfect week' - Van Aert reacts to stunning time trial win on Stage 4 of Paris-Nice
General classification
- 1 - Wout Van Aert - Jumbo-Visma 11:51:05
- 2 - Primoz Roglic - Jumbo-Visma +0:10
- 3 - Christophe Laporte - Jumbo-Visma +0:28
- 4 - Simon Yates - BikeExchange-Jayco +0:49
- 5 - Pierre Latour - Total Energies +0:51
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