Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) won the stage 4 time trial at the Tour of Luxembourg, setting a time of 19:11 on the 15.5km course to beat Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) to the victory by seven seconds.
Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) signalled his form ahead of next week’s UCI Road World Championships road race as the Dane rounded out the podium in third place at 11 seconds down.
The big news of the day, however, was another change in the leader’s jersey as stage 3 winner Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal-QuickStep) handed the overall lead back to stage 1 winner Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
Van der Poel finished up fifth on the day, limiting his losses to Ayuso to 19 seconds, while Vansevenant finished down in 18th place, 54 seconds off the Spaniard.
As a result, Van der Poel – who is a week away from his world title defence – is back in the race lead ahead of Sunday’s final stage, a hilly 177km run from Mersch to Luxembourg. He holds a three-second lead over Ayuso in second and Vansevenant in third. Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) lies in fourth at eight seconds, while Tiberi is in fifth at 10 seconds.
How it unfolded
With three stages of racing over and done, and under 30 seconds separating 14 riders behind Vansevenant, the time trial in Differdange was always set to be a major GC flashpoint in the 2.Pro stage race.
A flat start on the stage would give way to a 1.3km, 8.5% climb just before the mid-stage checkpoint, with the rest of the run back into Differdange run on rolling and flat roads.
Few of the early starters pulled up any trees, with only one of the first 25 riders breaking the 20-minute barrier – early hot seat holder Vincent Van Hemelen (Flanders-Baloise) at 19:51.
The Belgian would be forced out of the provisional lead less than 10 minutes later as Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), honing his form ahead of the Road World Championships, sped through with a time of 19:22 to go quickest.
Lorenzo Milesi (Movistar) crossed the line minutes later to slot into second place, his time of 19:32 the closest to Pedersen’s for another half an hour before Felix Großschartner (UAE Team Emirates) went one second quicker.
Pedersen’s time stood firm at the top of the standings, however, as the likes of Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) and Finn Fisher-Black (UAE Team Emirates) crossed the line with solid but non-threatening times of 19:37 and 19:44.
Once the late runners, the GC contenders, were ready to go out and start their runs it was Ayuso, lying in 11th overall, who commanded attention as he sped through the first checkpoint in first place.
His time of 12:19 was six seconds quicker than Pedersen and he duly converted that into the top time at the finish line to slot into provisional lead by 11 seconds. Those starting just after him – including David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Wilco Kelderman (Visma-Lease A Bike) – couldn’t come close to Ayuso’s time, meaning he was immediately setting his eyes at the top of the GC.
Tiberi set a solid time at the intermediate checkpoint, shedding nine seconds to Ayuso. Unlike others, however, he held his speed rather than fading over the second half and crossed the line with a deficit of seven seconds, good to go second on the stage.
Podium sitters Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates), Van der Poel, and Vansevenant were last off, with the latter duo both putting in better rides than the race leader.
Hirschi crossed the checkpoint seven seconds off Ayuso and ended up fourth at the finish, 15 seconds down, while Van der Poel started off stronger – four seconds down – before fading slightly to finish fifth, a further four seconds back.
Vansevenant, meanwhile, was always set to lose the leader’s jersey. He was already 21 seconds down at the checkpoint and finished his day well out of contention at 54 seconds off Ayuso, ceding the lead after one day.
Results
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