"This is good progress" - Tao Geoghegan Hart can feel top form returning after solid Criterium du Dauphine time-trial

With the first Grand Tour of his time at Lidl-Trek looming large, Tao Geoghegan Hart could be coming into form at just the right time. On the stage 4 individual time-trial at the 2024 Criterium du Dauphine, the former Giro d'Italia winner showed some of his best legs of the season so far.

"You can only go off what you have done this season and I haven't done much in TT's this season so this is good progress in that respect," assessed the 29-year-old Brit honestly in a post-stage interview with Lidl-Trek's official website, having stopped the clock with the 10th fastest time on the day and moving up to 9th in the general classification as a result.

In truth, Geoghegan Hart has been relatively quiet since swapping the colours of INEOS Grenadiers for Lidl-Trek over the most recent off-season. After finishing top-10 overall at the Tour de Romandie in his last race and the growing strength in his performances continuing so far at the Criterium du Dauphine, the former Tour of the Alps winner is growing in confidence.

"I could feel early that I was very good but I just stuck to riding my own idea and feeling," Geoghegan Hart recaps of his time-trial efforts on stage 4. "At 10 kilometers to go I tried to find a pace that felt just on the edge for that section which was good but, for sure, I had a lot left in that last kilometer but that's a good sign for the next days."

With some monster climbing to come over the next few days at the Criterium du Dauphine, Geoghegan Hart is currently 1:39 off the Maillot Jaune of race leader Remco Evenepoel. "I think TT's are isolated and while there was 450 meters uphill it was drags and it going to be very different in the coming days," concludes the Lidl-Trek man. "Today was one test and we have three more to end the week and we will see what they hold."