Benjamin Thomas takes race lead with victory at 4 Jours de Dunkerque: "It's comfortable to have this lead but we must not relax and avoid losing seconds stupidly"

Benjamin Thomas stormed to a convincing victory in 4 Jours de Dunkerque stage 3 individual time trial where he left his competition in the dust over the course of 15,9 km. The 27-year old Frenchman also took lead in the overall classification atop his stage victory, now sitting 14 seconds ahead Soudal - Quick-Step's Kasper Asgreen.

This is a victory that will delight the ranks of Team Cofidis, who will set out from the 4th stage in search of preserving Benjamin Thomas' first place in the general classification: "I'm really satisfied. We'll have to avoid the pitfalls on the cobblestones and defend on the Cassel stage. We will have to follow the attacks of riders like Romain Grégoire, Benoît Cosnefroy or Soudal - Quick-Step who also have a very good team."

"We too have a team that is going strong, Max Walscheid was 2nd the first day, but also Alexis Renard, Victor Lafay... Everyone is in good shape and now we have a common objective, to bring the pink jersey to Dunkerque on Sunday. It's comfortable to have this lead but we must not relax and avoid losing seconds stupidly, with breaks or bonuses," Thomas explained the main concern.

"It is the last 4 Jours of Alain Deloeuil (team's sporting director), I know that he is quite moved," the Cofidis rider adds up to how special is this victory: "It's been a while since I rode a good time trial, so I'm happy to find the good feelings in this discipline. A little flashback to six years ago, I took my first professional victory at 4 Jours and I find success this season again in this race."