Foss time trials to ninth at Dauphine

Tobias Foss finished in ninth place on the fourth stage of Criterium du Dauphine after briefly being in the time trial hot seat.

Foss clocked 22:00 minutes to go a full minute quicker than Norwegian compatriot Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) and fire into the hot seat. Michael Leonard flew into second soon after, 36 seconds back on Foss.

Speaking from the hot seat, Foss said:

“I think definitely this TT is suited for a time trial bike as long as you can push the power, so for me it was no question, but I have to admit I was really surprised when I saw the wall in front of us.

“I gave it a good crack. I think it was a really good TT from me.”

Remi Cavagna (Groupama-FDJ) was three seconds quicker than Foss to knock him off the top spot, with world champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) eventually taking the win.

A mechanical at the start of Magnus Sheffield’s ride saw him slightly hindered, but he still managed to finish in 17th place, with Carlos Rodriguez just behind in 20th, with the same placing for both on the GC.

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Magnus Sheffield:

“It was a really hard time trial. The course was quite windy. It wasn’t my best ride - I just focused on putting in my best effort, pushing against the wind, and keeping the speed up as much as possible.

“I have mixed feelings about my performance. We always try to go for the victory, but I wasn’t quite there today. Anyway, we have big goals this summer and this ITT is part of the process to get in there. It’s about keeping our head down and hoping that all these efforts will pay off later on.”

Carlos Rodriguez:

“The time trial went relatively well. Everything went down to plan in the first, flat section - I felt alright and could keep a good position on the bike. Then the climb came, and I pushed through it as due. It was after the descent that I had some bad feelings - from then on, it was about surviving all the way to the finish. I suffered quite a bit, although I didn’t plummet and my guess is everyone has felt kind of the same.

“I came into the race from a long training camp in Tenerife, and I am finding my racing legs bit by bit, day by day. There is some room for improvement, but this is what we came here for - to fine-tune some details so we could make it to the Tour in the best possible shape.

“Thursday’s stage is a good chance to try and recover from today’s effort. There are three hard mountain days in the schedule afterwards, and we are hoping to do our best, keep up with the other favourites and take our chances as they come.”