And the stage lived up to expectations – and provided a few surprises as well. But it was no surprise that Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), the reigning world and Olympic ITT champion, won the stage, which was run over a 17.4 km course from Charmes-sur-Rhône to Saint-Péray. If there were any doubts about his fitness, the Belgian rider laid them to rest with a dominant performance. He now leads the race by 4 seconds over the surprising young German Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe), with Movistar’s Iván Romeo sitting third, at 9 seconds.
Vingegaard (Visma–Lease a Bike) was almost as impressive, as he finished second, 21 seconds behind the winner. The first surprise was the name of the third-place finisher, Vingegaard’s teammate Matteo Jorgenson, who finished 38 seconds adrift and continues to show that he is becoming a superb cyclist and will be invaluable to Vingegaard’s quest to win a third Tour de France.
The biggest surprise was the performance of Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates–XRG), who finished fourth, 49 seconds behind Evenepoel and only 8 seconds ahead of Lipowitz. He now ranks eighth in the GC, 38 seconds behind the leader. Assuming that everyone will still improve before the start of the Tour, on July 5, this could be a worrying sign for the Slovenian.
There are two ITTs in the Tour: the stage 5 time trial will be run over a pretty flat 33 km course, while most of the stage 13 10.9 km ITT consists of a climb to the finish at Peyragudes (8 km @ 7.9%), in the French Pyrenees. If the GC decision is not made in the mountain stages, the ITTs could play an important role in the final GC standings.
A word should also be said about the performance of the “Fourth Superstar,” Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who excels at every aspect of cycling except for climbing and, until Wednesday, time trialing. But he rode a superb race, finishing sixth, 1:02 behind the winner and is now fourth in the GC, at 14 seconds.
Evenepoel said after the race he hadn’t expected to have such big gaps over his rivals. “I think it means that I did a really good time trial,” he said on TNT Sports. “On the flat, on the uphill and the small descent part I think I did everything [my team and I] spoke about and discussed. Like I said already yesterday, I really wanted to focus just on the stage win, and after that we were going to see on the GC. This morning we really did not expect to take [the] yellow [jersey], especially with the gap on [Romeo] and Lipowitz. But it just means that I did a good time trial and that we can only be happy and proud with the performance and the result of today.”
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He also said that his performance so far in the race was a good sign for the Tour. “It’s already good the performance I’ve been showing in the past few days. I’m feeling good, I’m feeling happy as well. It’s always better to be in good shape now so that I have less stress in the last month [before the Tour], as I had last year, for example.”
His win was also his team’s 1,000th victory, a very impressive performance achieved in not quite 23 years – which averages to more than 40 wins per year. “To reach 23 years and 1,000 victories at the highest level is an achievement that we are hugely proud of,” Soudal Quick-Step CEO Jurgen Foré said on the team’s website. “It is a milestone that is only made possible by years of dedication, teamwork, and unlimited passion. Each win tells a story in its own right, but the ethos of the team is that it’s never been about one individual.”
Vingegaard said he was “pretty happy with the result. Remco is the best time trialist in the world, so losing only 20 seconds to him in this time trial is pretty good, in my opinion. And I gained time on Tadej, so I can be satisfied at the end of the day.”
As for Pogačar, he admitted that he had an off-day. “I didn’t do the perfect TT today. I think I probably got the pacing slightly wrong,” he said, according to quotes made available by his team after the three-time Tour champion reportedly did not speak to journalists. “I started out on the first section a bit too conservative and should have pushed a bit more there. But it’s OK; that’s why we are here, to tune up before the Tour and improve.”
After the race, Pogačar did something unexpected: he briefly examined the bike Vingegaard used in the time trial, especially checking its weight. (See the video HERE.) It was probably just professional curiosity, but it could also be interpreted as a sign of admiration for his rival’s ITT performance. Or, since Pogačar is a master showman, he might simply have been playing up the rivalry for the journalists. In any case, it did nothing to reduce interest in the rest of the Dauphiné, which ends on Sunday.
Results of Stage 4 of the 2025 Critérium du Dauphiné:
- Remco Evenepoel, Soudal Quick-Step — 20:50
- Jonas Vingegaard, Visma–Lease a Bike — +0:21
- Matteo Jorgenson, Visma–Lease a Bike — +0:38
- Tadej Pogačar, UAE Team Emirates–XRG — +0:49
- Florian Lipowitz, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe — +0:57
- Mathieu van der Poel, Alpecin-Deceuninck — +1:02
- Stian Fredheim, Uno-X Mobility — +1:07
- Eddie Dunbar, Jayco-AlUla — +1:10
- Tobias Foss, INEOS Grenadiers — +1:12
- Paul Seixas, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale — +1:14
General Classification after Stage 4:
- Remco Evenepoel, Soudal Quick-Step — 14:31:08
- Florian Lipowitz, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe — +0:04
- Iván Romeo, Movistar — +0:09
- Mathieu van der Poel, Alpecin-Deceuninck — +0:14
- Jonas Vingegaard, Visma–Lease a Bike — +0:16
- Eddie Dunbar, Jayco-AlUla — +0:30
- Harold Tejada, XDS Astana — +0:37
- Tadej Pogačar, UAE Team Emirates–XRG — +0:38
- Matteo Jorgenson, Visma–Lease a Bike — +0:39
- Louis Barré, Intermarché-Wanty — +1:03
