Critérium du Dauphiné stage 4 preview: The crucial TT

The favorites will be fighting it out in the tough 31.1 km TT from Cours to Belmont-de-la-Loire on Wednesday. The course features a short climb early on, then a steady uphill drag toward the end, making it a challenging day for the contenders.

Since it’s been only flat stages thus far, most of the riders that are favoured to win are less than half a minute  behind yellow jersey Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma). His Danish teammate Jonas Vingegaard could snag the lead from him, but  2019 Giro winner Richard Carapaz can’t be discounted as well. Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal – Quick Step) who had a dramatic chase back onto the field after a late-race bike change in Stage 3 is only 11 seconds behind, but he’d have to have the TT of his life to beat Vingegaard, Carapaz, or even comeback king Egan Bernal.

Here is the current GC after Stage 3.