Jorgenson Powers Visma To The Stage 3 Team Time Trial As Baudin Clings To Yellow By Twelve Seconds
After two days of breakaway theatre, the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes finally bared its general classification teeth on Tuesday, and it was Matteo Jorgenson who rocketed across the line fastest to bring Visma-Lease a Bike victory in the 28.4km stage 3 team time trial around Perreux. The American crossed the timing beam at the head of his squad in 32:52, the quickest of the day, in what the race once known as the Critérium du Dauphiné framed as the first real reckoning of the week.
Behind Visma, Netcompany Ineos produced a superb ride to take second on the stage at nine seconds, the leadership tandem of Kévin Vauquelin and Oscar Onley crossing the line together to vault to within twelve seconds of the overall lead. EF Education-EasyPost rounded out the stage podium at 29 seconds, and crucially it was their effort that allowed race leader Alex Baudin to dig deep at the death and narrowly defend the yellow jersey he has worn since the opening day.
The GC times were taken on individual finishes rather than awarded to a team on its fourth or fifth rider — precisely the format the Tour de France will use for its stage 1 team time trial. That made the discipline as much a tactical exercise in self-preservation as a flat-out team effort, and the standings now read Baudin in yellow, Vauquelin and Onley level at twelve seconds, and Jorgenson fourth at fifteen, with Juan Ayuso and Mattias Skjelmose the next men at 47 seconds.
For Jorgenson, the win carried an emotional charge well beyond a fistful of GC seconds. It was his first race since fracturing his collarbone in a crash at Amstel Gold Race, an injury that wrecked his spring and forced weeks on the sidelines. “This is seven times better than winning on your own, because the team gets the moment afterwards together, which you don’t often get,” he said at the finish. “It feels good to win a race, and really nice after the spring I’ve had.”
Visma got there despite a ragged ride. They lost Wout van Aert early and Ben Tulett punctured on the main descent, leaving the squad to reorganise on the fly. “It didn’t go well for us today,” Jorgenson admitted, “but we adapted well and could rearrange things. In the final downhill we couldn’t have gone any faster.” The two-time Paris-Nice champion was coy about his own GC ambitions for the mountainous final weekend, but he certainly did them no harm.
The day was less kind to pre-race favourite Paul Seixas. The 19-year-old prodigy and his Decathlon CMA CGM team conceded 45 seconds to Visma, leaving the teenager to bide his time until the mountain-packed triple-header that closes the race. With a hilly bunch finish expected on Wednesday before the climbing begins in earnest, the genuine GC contenders will have to wait a little longer to settle their scores.
With Tadej Pogaĉar and Jonas Vingegaard sitting this one out, the wider significance of Tuesday lay in its value as a dress rehearsal for the 19km team time trial around Barcelona that will decide the first maillot jaune on 4 July. Teams treated the rolling Loire roads as a laboratory for equipment, warm-up protocol and rotation, knowing it is far better to find the kinks now than at the Grand Départ.