Remco Evenepoel sends out Tour de France warning and takes race lead at Criterium du Dauphine with thunderous ITT
CyclingWednesday, 05 June 2024 at 16:58
Soudal - Quick-Step's Remco Evenepoel was playing down his ambitions and his level heading into the 2024 Criterium du Dauphine. In the stage 4 time-trial however, the Belgian looked back to his best as he powered to the stage win and moved into the race lead in the process, sending out a Tour de France warning.
As expected, the fastest of the early riders by some distance was the INEOS Grenadiers' European champion, Joshua Tarling. The Welshman completed the 34.4km course in a time of 42.06, over two minutes quicker than anyone else to have finished by that point, averaging out at 49.014 kilometres an hour.
Tarling was still the dominant rider when world champion Remco Evenepoel, who started the day in 33rd overall, took to the start ramp, still no one had gone within two minutes of the INEOS Grenadiers powerhouse. At the first time check however, Evenepoel was two seconds quicker than his rival. At the line meanwhile, both Matteo Sobrero and Tim Wellens got within two minutes of Tarling.
As Evenepoel reached the second time check, the difference between him and Tarling had been overturned with the Welshman now in front although just by a single second. At the finish line though, Evenepoel showed why is world champion to move into the hot seat and set the fastest time by 17 seconds.
As the rest of the general classification hopefuls followed Evenepoel, Sepp Kuss crossed the line 3:35 slower than Evenepoel. Tao Geoghegan Hart was 1:38 down. David Gaudu was a disastrous 4:07 off the pace, whilst Santiago Buitrago stopped the clock at 2:00. Juan Ayuso would have been slightly disappointed with his effort, finishing 1:27 down of the Soudal - Quick-Step leader. Oier Lazkano impressed, finishing 1:21 slower and moved into provisional third on the day.
Closing out the efforts of the day, Aleksandr Vlasov was 1:48 down on the stage winner, Carlos Rodriguez stopped the clock at 1:41 down, Matteo Jorgenson was at 1:07, Primoz Roglic kept himself in contention by losing just 39 seconds and Derek Gee battled bravely in the Maillot Jaune, losing 1:24.
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- That's a surprise
leedorney06-05-2025 - You were doing so well up until the last paragraph :-). So Almeida did not win a single stage race with UAE and now because of contract uplift he can win prestigious races? Come on. The man was being shaped to get to this level and took 2 years. After leaving QS he had lost his punch, he is not a sprinter of course but he had a good kick, he also lost a bit his TT performance, was a disaster going downhill. All this time he was improving his climbing and now he is recovering all the aforementioned qualities he had before. He is not putting on a show because of contract negotiations, he simply evolved also due to changing trainer. I think he will do a hat-trick in Tour de Suisse and then go with no pressure to the Tour. Depending on how well Jonas or Remco recover and how tired Roglic is from the Giro, a podium might fall on his lap. Then Vuelta maybe UAE can compensate his performance by making him the solo leader if Pogacar is doubting. However, where I am really interested to see Almeida is the World Championships. I am hoping the race is split early and then we see Almeida picking up corpses along the Rwanda streets up until he reaches an empty Pogacar and then tips him over the line. Then I wake up and life continues.Indioshak06-05-2025
- Jonas had also had a speed wobble on that same descent. They have both improved their descending skills since then, and in 2024 took scary risks on downhills.Hill3306-05-2025
- Should be a good one! It's been since 2022 since we have seen peak Pogi vs peak Vingo. 2023 Pogi had injuries and a suboptimal preparation. 2024 Vingo had even worse injuries and a poor runup to the Tour. UAE team has gotten stronger since 2022, while Visma maybe less strong.mobk06-05-2025
- You'd have to be an amoral prick to work for this team.Matt06-05-2025
- Jonas is a very solid descender. Remember him waiting for Pog when Pog crashed on a descent in 2022mobk05-05-2025
- For Pogi's first win against Jonas, he had a very subpar team relative to Jumbo. I don't think Jonas would have stood a chance if he had Pogi's team that year.Veganpotter05-05-2025
- He descended very well at the TdF last year after the first couple stages with technical descents.Veganpotter05-05-2025
- The funny thing about all of this is that Pogi can(that doesn't mean he definitely will) win the TdF while it's only one of many goals. Jonas is fully focused on the TdF. Yes, he does other races but they're solely in preparation for the TdF. Jonas is great, but much of the reason he has a fighters chance is that Pogi isn't a rider that's fully focused on stage races.Veganpotter05-05-2025
- Yates- when he is on - is pretty awesome to watch.
ScottG05-05-2025
I knew he was feeling good as I have been watching his strava data. I want to see him ride strong in the mountains now, Primoz is on his heels. Let's see how he does.
If he comes out of the TdeF healthy, Remco could be the Olympic gold medalist on July 27th.
It will be interesting if Remco can hold that lead and win this race. Even more interesting will be whether or not Roglic and the field of riders can crack him before this race is over.
The Remco haters are not gonna like this 😂
Love him or hate him, he’s a phenomenal TT talent.
And makes the sport a lot more entertaining to watch.
will he live up to his potential? if he retires now, I would say he has. WC, GT, monument, classics, etc. 55 wins by 24. yeah, he is doing ok.
you know how it felt because you rode it too?
any GT win is super difficult.
Remco was same time as Primoz on his win. In the TT he destroyed Primoz by 48s. In Remco's mountain stage win he beat some very fine pure climbers. To win over 3 weeks always takes quality.