While the majority of attention was on Remco Evenepeol (Soudal-QuickStep) after his win on stage 4 of the Critérium du Dauphiné, Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) also took a big step in his first race since Itzulia Basque Country with third in the time trial.
Roglič was only beaten by the ITT World Champion Evenepoel and second-placed European Champion Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers) in the 34.4km race against the clock, and now sits second overall just 33 seconds off the Belgian’s lead.
It’s a big step in Roglič’s preparation to the Tour de France, where he is set to lead Bora-Hansgrohe after joining the squad from Jumbo-Visma. However, after crashing yesterday, the Slovenian was just pleased to stay rubber-side down.
“I’m happy, I stayed on the bike so it’s quite the improvement from yesterday,” said Roglič with a big smile to reporters including CyclingProNet after the line. “It was all fine, stay on two wheels and it’s nice.”
Despite moving into the yellow jersey, Evenepoel did claim before the race that he wasn’t heading into the Dauphiné with ambitions of going for the overall. However, this may still be the case as he and Roglič are well aware that the toughest mountain stages which will decide the race are yet to arrive at the end of the week.
“It’s just the beginning, it's the first one,” Roglič said before admitting that tomorrow’s stage to Saint-Priest is “easier” with the trio of summit finishes starting on Friday likely to decide the win.
The Slovenian did admit that he still wasn’t yet at 100% after returning from the mass Itzulia crash and a long altitude camp in Sierra Nevada with many of Bora’s provisional Tour team. But he valued getting more race experience on the TT equipment of his new team for 2024 and that he was racing instead of training.
“I put quite some training in. Definitely, I’m not at my best coming here but I think it’s still better to do a race than do training,” said the 34-year-old.
“I never do these kinds of things in training so needed for sure. It’s quite a change [the equipment] and actually, it’s really the first time trial for me. Basque was more of a prologue.”
He also claimed to have no lingering issues from the crash on stage 3 which left him with a ripped jersey and visible abrasions to his back, admitting that the legs hurt more in the full gas 42-minute effort.
Roglič also wasn’t overly happy with his pacing, joking about how he always tries to get a fast start but hasn’t managed it. However, only being 26 seconds behind Evenepoel and 24 on Tarling - two of the three best TT riders in the world - after the opening flat 10 kilometres, is far from a sign of poor form.
“I always try to start full but I never succeed with it so I’m always better in the end. So luckily, you take the time at the end and not with the first intermediate,” joked Roglič.
Alongside a strong start, Roglic, the Olympic ITT Champion, would only lose 13 more seconds by the time he reached the finish, showing great signs for the Tour. Most of the remaining GC field lost over a minute and many of them two by the time they reached Neulise.
The Slovenian was quick to point out how different stage 4 of the Dauphiné was from the final stage ITT of the 2024 Tour de France, which will take in La Turbie (8.1km at 5.6%) and part of the Col d’Eze (1.6km at 8.7%) during a 33.7km effort. However, with 59 total kilometres against the clock incoming at the Tour, Roglič looked as though he was close to approaching his best time-trialling form.
