The Visma-Lease a Bike hits the table in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Tour. The Dutch squad, which arrives with the winning momentum after sweeping the Giro with Vingegaard, once again showed the muscle of its best days in a team time trial that is destined to blow up the general classification of the old Dauphiné.
Matteo Jorgenson finished off the impeccable work of some ‘wasps’ who not only recovered lost ground, but also put time on direct rivals of the stature of Juan Ayuso, Paul Seixas and Isaac del Toro. With the current differences, the race is very lively before facing the decisive alpine triptych of the weekend. Alex Baudin and EF completed a solid performance and retained the yellow after finishing third.
Movistar set the first reference time (33:44) until Lidl-Trek arrived. Ayuso entered hand in hand with Sjkelmose. Both pushed themselves to the maximum on the final slope to unseat Movistar from the hot seat and become provisional leaders of the time trial after stopping the clock in 33:24 at a spectacular average of almost 51 km/h.
The Decathlon loomed right behind. Seixas, who was on the verge of crashing after a dangerous whiplash from his bicycle in the curve before the final wall, ended up entering alone and leaving 11 seconds behind the American team.
The Netcompany-Ineos was flying at an airplane pace and already improved Lidl’s best time by 20 seconds at the first intermediate point. However, the time trial was disrupted due to a mechanical problem for Onley. The British man’s chain jumped, destroying the rhythm of the formation and unnerving Vauquelin, who gestured with obvious frustration as he disapproved of the order to wait for him.
Despite the tension, the car’s strategy was immutable: Onley’s trump card could not be lost. In the end, the gap was corrected with a loss of only six seconds compared to the pace they had been setting.
The decision to wait for Onley may be the right one in the long term, but it cost them the stage victory. Although they kept the British fully in the fight for the general classification and managed to beat Lidl-Trek with a great time of 33:01 (at an average of 51.5 km/h), they ended up giving up against Matteo Jorgenson’s Visma. Even so, the Frenchman and the British placed second and third overall after Baudin.
The ‘wasps’, who had to overcome Tullet’s loss due to a mechanical problem, flew over the Perreux asphalt, especially in the final stretch. Nordhagen held his own with Jorgenson until the final climb, where he masterfully threw the American to destroy the Netcompany record in 11 seconds. In this way, the Dutch team became the only one capable of breaking the 33-minute barrier (32:52), after completing an exhibition at an average of 51.8 km/h.
The biggest victim of the day was Isaac del Toro. Very irregular chrono UAE Team Emirates who finished in eighth position and ended up giving up more than a minute to Matteo Jorgenson. Visma has not yet taken off the pink and extends its dominance to France.
