MONTLUÇON, France – Belgian Wout van Aert won the 4th stage of Paris-Nice, a 13.4 kilometer time trial run Wednesday in Montluçon, ahead of two of his Jumbo teammates, Slovenian Primoz Roglic and Australian Rohan Dennis.
Van Aert donned the yellow leader’s jersey after this stage marked by a second hat-trick for the Jumbo team, three days after their first stage stunt.
However, the gaps between the frontrunners have narrowed: the fourth in the stage, the Swiss European champion Stefan Küng, lost only 10 seconds compared to van Aert.
At the top of the steep finish hill, the Belgian, winner last year of the Tour de France time trial, beat Roglic, Olympic champion in the discipline, by 2 seconds and Dennis by 6 seconds, two times world champion in the past.
In the provisional general classification, van Aert now precedes Roglic by 10 seconds and Laporte by 28 seconds.
The defending champion, the German Maximilian Schachmann (Bora), withdrew before the start, as did the Australian Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën), feverish.
Thursday, the 5th stage, 188.8 kilometers long, joins the Loire in the Ardèche and crosses the Col de la Mure (7.6 km at 8.3%), 33 kilometers from the finish judged in Saint- Sauveur-de-Montagut.
