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Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) gained the stage 4 time trial on 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 type forward of subsequent week’s UCI Road World Championships street race because the Dane rounded out the rostrum in third place at 11 seconds down.
The large information of the day, nonetheless, was one other change within the chief’s jersey as stage 3 winner Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal-QuickStep) handed the general lead again to stage 1 winner Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
Van der Poel completed up fifth on the day, limiting his losses to Ayuso to 19 seconds, whereas Vansevenant completed down in 18th place, 54 seconds off the Spaniard.
As a consequence, Van der Poel – who’s every week away from his world title defence – is again within the race lead forward of Sunday’s last 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, whereas Tiberi is in fifth at 10 seconds.
How it unfolded
With three levels of racing over and accomplished, and underneath 30 seconds separating 14 riders behind Vansevenant, the time trial in Differdange was all the time set to be a serious GC flashpoint within the 2.Pro stage race.
A flat begin on the stage would give strategy to a 1.3km, 8.5% climb simply earlier than the mid-stage checkpoint, with the remainder of the run again into Differdange run on rolling and flat roads.
Few of the early starters pulled up any timber, with solely one of many first 25 riders breaking the 20-minute barrier – early scorching seat holder Vincent Van Hemelen (Flanders-Baloise) at 19:51.
The Belgian can be pressured out of the provisional lead lower than 10 minutes later as Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), honing his type forward of the Road World Championships, sped by way of with a time of 19:22 to go quickest.
Lorenzo Milesi (Movistar) crossed the road minutes later to fit into second place, his time of 19:32 the closest to Pedersen’s for an additional half an hour earlier than Felix Großschartner (UAE Team Emirates) went one second faster.
Pedersen’s time stood agency on the high of the standings, nonetheless, because the likes of Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) and Finn Fisher-Black (UAE Team Emirates) crossed the road with strong however non-threatening occasions of 19:37 and 19:44.
Once the late runners, the GC contenders, have been able to exit and begin their runs it was Ayuso, mendacity in eleventh total, who commanded consideration as he sped by way of the primary checkpoint in first place.
His time of 12:19 was six seconds faster than Pedersen and he duly transformed that into the highest time on the end line to fit into provisional lead by 11 seconds. Those beginning simply after him – together with David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Wilco Kelderman (Visma-Lease A Bike) – couldn’t come near Ayuso’s time, that means he was instantly setting his eyes on the high of the GC.
Tiberi set a strong time on the intermediate checkpoint, shedding 9 seconds to Ayuso. Unlike others, nonetheless, he held his velocity reasonably than fading over the second half and crossed the road 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 have been final off, with the latter duo each placing in higher rides than the race chief.
Hirschi crossed the checkpoint seven seconds off Ayuso and ended up fourth on the end, 15 seconds down, whereas Van der Poel began off stronger – 4 seconds down – earlier than fading barely to complete fifth, an extra 4 seconds again.
Vansevenant, in the meantime, was all the time set to lose the chief’s jersey. He was already 21 seconds down on the checkpoint and completed his day properly out of rivalry at 54 seconds off Ayuso, ceding the lead after sooner or later.
Results
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