Bjerg moves into yellow with maiden professional win at Dauphine

Mikkel Bjerg took the biggest result of his young career, winning the individual time trial and moving into the yellow jersey on stage 4 of the Criterium du Dauphine in France.

Mikkel Bjerg on the podium at the Criterium du Dauphine

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After three days of bunch sprints to open the Dauphine, the general classification riders and time trial specialists got a chance to flex their muscles in the ‘race of truth’ as they set the first big marker down ahead of the Tour de France.

All eyes were on defending Tour de France champion, Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), and while the Danish rider impressed, it was his countryman who took the honours on the day.

The three-time Under 23 time trial champion, Bjerg, put in the ride of his life on the undulating course from Cours to Belmont-de-la-Loire (31.1km), clocking a time of 37:28 and an average speed of 49.8kmph.

The course was roughly divided into three parts, with an uphill start and longer downhill section to the first checkpoint at kilometre 10.7, then a flatter 9km mid-section, and finally the 11.4km false flat grind that wound up to gradients of 6% in the home straight.

Bjerg registered slower splits than his rivals for he stage, placing behind second and third-placed finishers, respectively, Vingegaard and Remi Cavagna (Deceuninck-QuickStep) at the first time check. They were all within a second of each other at the second marker, but Bjerg timed his effort well to come home strong and win the stage by a margin of 12’ seconds over Vingegaard.

“I’ve worked so hard for this first pro victory,” said Bjerg. “I’m just so relieved that I finally got it now, I feel like I had so many chances to do it and just didn’t live up to my own expectations.

“This morning I doubted myself, I said the course was too hard, but my manager texted me saying ‘just go for it, you have nothing to lose’. I’m just so happy.”

Bjerg moved into the overall lead with the stage win, and now sits atop the standings by 12 seconds over Vingegaard, with Australian hopefuls Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroen) fourth overall at 41 seconds in arrears, Jai Hindley (BORA-hansgrohe) 1’08 behind in tenth, and Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) 1’15 off the pace in 11^th.

The Criterium du Dauphine continues tonight with Stage 5, the hilly stage seeing the tough climb of the Cote de Thesy (3.7km at 8.2%) summit with 14 kilometres remaining in the race. Watch it all from 11pm AEST on SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand.