Critérium du Dauphiné stage 4 – Live coverage

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of stage 4 of the Critérium du Dauphiné. It's time trial day!

As the only time trial in the race, today should be a decisive GC day despite the relatively short length. It's the first chance in the race to get a look at how the big contenders are faring ahead of the mountain stages to come.

It'll be a tough day out for the riders with several hills and rises to contend with.

There's a 700-metre, five per cent climb just after five kilometres in, another two-kilometres, 4.4 per cent hill through the mid-stage checkpoint, a one-kilometre, 3.9 per cent hill after 13 kilometres, and then a rise to the line which averages four per cent over the final 1.4 kilometres.

The first few riders are already out on course, with UAE Team Emirates' Ivo Oliveira the first man off.

Trek-Segafredo's Ryan Mullen is setting off now. He should set the running early on.

The biggest names will be setting off in the final hour of action, though.

Miguel Ángel López 15:07, Richie Porte 15:11, Tao Geoghegan Hart 15:17, Nairo Quintana 15:18, David Gaudu 15:22, Steven Kruijswijk 15:29, Geraint Thomas 15:31, Lukas Pöstlberger 15:38.

Check here for the full list of start times – Critérium du Dauphiné 2021 stage 4 start times

Former four-time world time trial champion Tony Martin starts his effort.

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I must've glossed over Josef Černý's name among the early runners. He's out on the course now and a very strong time trialist as he showed with three top-six placings and a solo breakaway win at the Giro last year.

He's quickest at the intermediate checkpoint after 7.5 kilometres with a time of 9:40.

Tony Martin has set a time of 9:41, while Mullen is at 9:47.

Oliveira is first to finish today. He sets a time of 23:24.

The Portuguese rider was 24 seconds down at the checkpoint so we should be looking at sub-23 minutes from Černy and co.

Černy's 22:57 sees him the first man under 23 minutes, but Martin has blown that away with a time of 22:35! 

Mullen is third at the moment on 23:22.

Lotto Soudal youngster Harry Sweeny has set a strong time at the checkpoint. He's second-quickest at 9:41.

Chad Haga (Team DSM) has equalled Černy at the checkpoint. 9:40 for the American.

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23:18 for Andrey Amador at the finish. That's a top effort to go third fastest.

Groupama-FDJ's Kevin Geniets second fastest at the finish with a 22:47. It seems like riders are saving themselves a little for the second half of their effort – he was sixth at the checkpoint.

22-year-old Sweeny has gone top of the leaderboards! A 22:28 for the Australian who made the step up from Lotto's development team this season.

We'll see what Haga can do next...

Will Barta and Robert Gesink have both put in top 10 times at the checkpoint. They're 14 and 15 seconds down on Sweeny, though.

Arkéa-Samsic's Laurent Pichon has put in a similar time to start off, too.

Chad Haga crosses the line and he's third with a time of 22:37.

Reto Hollenstein is at 9:46 at the checkpoint. That's good for fifth quickest so far.

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22:56 for Gesink at the finish. He's fifth quickest, 28 seconds down on Sweeny.

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) now quickest at the checkpoint. His time of 9:26 is 14 seconds up on Haga's time.

Dorian Godon (AG2R Citroën) goes second, 10 seconds slower.

Dylan Van Baarle had a good second part of the course to rise from 11th to sixth with a time of 22:49.

Lawson Craddock, Brent Bookwalter, Michał Kwiatkowski and Mikkel Bjerg are all out on course at the moment.

Craddock goes 9:30 at the checkpoint for second as Vingegaard comes to the line. He's quick.

21:53 for Vingegaard! Easily the quickest man so far.

He leads by over half a minute.

Eighth place for Godon over the line. He lost time in the second part of the stage.

Bjerg's time of 9:38 is good for fourth at the 7.5km checkpoint.

Kwiatkowski is going very well. He sets a time of 9:30 for third-quickest.

Bjerg has 12 seconds to makee up over the latter part of the stage, Kwiatkowski has 4 seconds to make up.

Brandon McNulty is off. He's among the favourites today.

Chris Froome has also started his effort.

9:36 for Cofidis rider Anthony Perez at the checkpoint, a nice time for the Frenchman.

Lawson Craddock comes to the finish. His time of 22:15 is second fastest so far.

A tough day out despite only being 16 kilometres long.

Bjerg and Kwiatkowski should be finishing in a few minutes. It'll be interesting to see how they compare to Vingegaard.

Vingegaard sprung to prominence during his neo-pro year in 2019, winning the Post Danmark Rundt and a stage of the Tour de Pologne. Last year he was a top domestique for Primož Roglič's winning effort at the Vuelta a España. This season he has stage wins at the UAE Tour and the Settimana Coppi e Bartali (as well as the overall at the latter), and took second at Itzulia Basque Country.

Bjerg finishes second quickest with a time of 22:11. Kwiatkowski goes quicker but can't match Vingegaard either, with a time of 22:04.

McNulty's 9:22 at the checkpoint is the quickest time so far.

Cofidis' Perez is sixth at the finish with a time of 22:35.

Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe) is second at the checkpoint with a time of 9:30. Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) sixth at 9:32.

Stage 1 winner Brent Van Moer goes eighth quickest at the finish with a time of 22:36. McNulty finishing soon.

McNulty doesn't take it! He's three seconds down at the finish and slots into second place.

Politt passes his minute-man Froome out on course.

Politt finishes as he closes in on two-minute man Cyril Gautier. His time is sixth quickest at 22:27.

Chris Froome's time of 23:48 is good for 44th fastest, 1:55 down on Vingegaard.

Tim Wellens crosses the line and his time is 22:14. Fifth fastest.

Only two men under 22 minutes so far.

A strong start for Dylan Teuns (Bahrain Victorious), who is third fastest at 9:27.

Miguel Ángel López, Richie Porte and Ben O'Connor are out on course.

Astana's Óscar Rodríguez takes seventh at the finish. That's a nice time from the 26-year-old, who you may remember from his stage win for Euskadi-Murias at the 2018 Vuelta.

Ninth at the checkpoint for López at 9:35. That's a good time for the Colombian so far.

Nairo Quintana sets off.

Teuns is closing in on the finish now. He'll be up near the top of the timing ranks.

9:19 for Porte at the checkpoint! That's the quickest time so far.

Teuns has faded during the latter stages of the course. He crosses the line 51 seconds down having been third at the checkpoint.

Tao Geoghegan Hart, Enric Mas, Ion Izagirre and David Gaudu have set off in the past few minutes.

A look at the quickest man so far in action earlier on today.

Tao Geoghegan Hart is only 24th at the checkpoint. He's 22 seconds down on Porte.

Quintana passes through in 29th pace, 25 seconds down.

Enric Mas is 34th, 28 seconds down, at the checkpoint.

López crosses the line with a great time to finish seventh. 22:18 for him.

Steven Kruijswijk sets off.

Richie Porte just edges out Vingegaard at the top of the standings! A fraction under two seconds sees the Australian go quickest.

Wilco Kelderman (Bora-Hansgrohe) is quickest at the checkpoint now with a time of 9:18.

The last few riders are heading off now. Lutsenko, Kuss, Thomas, Asgreen and Valverde are off.

Aranburu, Colbrelli and Pöstlberger still to go.

Ben O'Connor takes fifth at the finish. A very good performance to finish with a time of 22:09.

He went a second quicker than his compatriot, Jack Haig, who also had a good day out.

Pöstlberger is off now. All remaining riders now on course.

Lutsenko goes third at the checkpoint and Kruijswijk goes seventh.

23rd for Geoghegan Hart at the finish at 22:39.

9:11 for Thomas at the checkpoint! That's seven seconds up on Kelderman.

31st for Quintana at the finish, 59 seconds down. Not the best day for the Colombian.

Ion Izagirre with a fantastic ride to go quickest! His time of 21:44 is seven seconds up on Porte.

Kelderman, Lutsenko, Thomas and Asgreen are the main men to watch now in terms of a possible stage win.

Riders are clearly going quicker on the tougher second part of the course now.

Aurelien Paret-Peintre (AG2R Citroën) sneaks into the top 10 with a good ride.

David Gaudu finishes 21st, 50 seconds down.

21:48 for Kelderman, who takes second at the finish.

Asgreen fifth at the checkpoint, 10 seconds down on Thomas. Aranburu is eighth at 14 seconds.

Pöstlberger now eighth at the checkpoint with a time of 9:25.

Wow Lutsenko! 21:36 at the finish for the Kazakhstani means he's fastest. Great ride.

Astana-Premier Tech have had a great day so far.

Kruijswijk and Thomas are minutes away from the finish.

Kruijswijk finishes 38 seconds down in 14th place.

DSM youngster Ilan Van Wilder is fourth at the finish with a time of 21:49.

Thomas can't beat Lutsenko. He crosses the line in eighth placee, 22 seconds down. He faded in the second part of the course.

Bora-Hansgrohe's Patrick Konrad is next to finish, 30 seconds down in 10th place.

Danish TT champion can't beat Lutsenko either. He finishes eight seconds down in third.

Pöstlberger needs to finish in a time under 22 minutes to keep yellow away from Lutsenko.

Valverde finishes his run and he's a long way down. The Spaniard is in 46th place, 1:16 down. Maybe he had a problem on the route.

Aranburu finishes in 43rd, followed by Colbrelli in 39th.

Pöstlberger comes to the finish...

It's close!

The Austrian finishes with a time of 21:59.20, 22 seconds down in ninth place!

It looks like he hangs on to yellow by less than a second.

Lutsenko takes the stage 4 win though.

It was hard to make out much of what Lutsenko was saying through his mask after the stage. Here are a few extracts...

"Maybe a surprise. I did my maximum. We did a lot of work on the TT bike in the altitude on Teide.

"Today's up and down for me is perfect. The Dauphiné isn't finished. I want to try [for yellow] tomorrow."

New Trek Speed Concept time trial bike spotted at Critérium du Dauphiné

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Lutsenko out on the course during his stage-winning effort

And the Kazakhstani celebrating his win on the podium..

Here's our report on a stage 4 time trial that threw up surprising results

With three mountain stages left to run from Friday to Sunday, things are still quite tight at the top of the GC. 19 riders are still within a minute of race leader Pöstlberger, who will be looking to hang on to yellow for another day tomorrow.

We'll see if Lutsenko can turn this into a real GC challenge, too. The 28-year-old won a Tour stage up Mont Aigoual last year, has finished seventh here before, and can count GC wins at the Tour of Oman and Arctic Race of Norway in his palmarès.

It's only his second-ever top 10 finish in a WorldTour time trial, so he's clearly in rare form this week.

Another day in yellow for Pöstlberger

Geraint Thomas admits to pacing error in Critérium du Dauphiné time trial

'Even at the checkpoint I was like 'oh, I've overdone this now',' says Ineos leader, who finished 10th

We'll have more news coming in from the race throughout this afternoon and evening, so be sure to stick around.