Criterium du Dauphine: Richie Porte wins stage as Chris Froome loses time

Australian Richie Porte won stage four of the Criterium du Dauphine as Briton Chris Froome lost time on his rivals.

BMC rider Porte won the 23.5km time trial from La Tour-du-Pin to Bourgoin-Jallieuin in 28 minutes seven seconds, 12 seconds ahead of German Tony Martin.

Team Sky's Froome, the defending champion, was eighth, 37 seconds behind former team-mate Porte.

Belgian Thomas de Gendt, a further five seconds behind in ninth, leads Porte by 27 seconds in the overall standings.

Froome is aiming to win the Tour de France for a fourth time this summer, with each of his previous victories in 2013, 2015 and 2016 preceded by winning the Dauphine.

However, he admitted the time trial results "change the dynamic" of the race.

He said on the Team Sky website. "If I'd gained time then I could have ridden more defensively on the climbs. Now that I've got time to make up it means I can be more offensive.

"We've got three big days of climbing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. That will be another big test to see exactly where everyone is at."

Spaniard Alejandro Valverde, riding for Movistar, was third on the stage to move up to third overall, 51 seconds behind De Gendt.

Spain's Alberto Contador was seventh, two seconds ahead of Froome, who trails De Gendt by 64 seconds in the general classification.

Frenchman Romain Bardet, runner-up to Froome in last year's Tour, lost almost two minutes.
Thursday's fifth stage features six categorised climbs, five of them coming in the opening 80km of the 175km race, but they are not expected to be tough enough to cause any huge changes in the overall standings.

Stage four results

1. Richie Porte (Aus/BMC Racing) 28mins 07secs
2. Tony Martin (Ger/Katusha) +12secs
3. Alejandro Valverde (Spa/Movistar) +24secs
4. Stef Clement (Ned/LottoNL) +28secs
5. Chad Haga (US/Sunweb) +32secs
6. Jasha Suetterlin (Ger/Movistar) same time
7. Alberto Contador (Spa/Trek) +35secs
8. Chris Froome (GB/Team Sky) +37secs
9. Thomas de Gendt (Bel/Lotto) +42secs
10. Brent Bookwalter (US/BMC Racing) +45secs

Overall classification after stage four

1. Thomas de Gendt (Bel/Lotto) 13hrs 05mins 53secs
2. Richie Porte (Aus/BMC Racing) +27secs
3. Alejandro Valverde (Spa/Movistar) +51secs
4. Stef Clement (Ned/LottoNL) +55secs
5. Alberto Contador (Spa/Trek) +1min 02secs
6. Chris Froome (GB/Team Sky) +1min 04secs
7. Brent Bookwalter (US/BMC Racing) +1min 12secs
8. Jesus Herrada (Spa/Movistar) +1min 15secs
9. Sam Oomen (Ned/Sunweb) +1min 17secs
10. Diego Ulissi (Ita/UAE Team Emirates) +1min 22secs