Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) crushed the opposition with a dominant ride in the time trial on stage 4 of the Paris-Nice.
Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) had a strong performance and completed the 14.5km course in 21 minutes and 58 seconds, beating all the times that were set until then. But minutes later, Alaphilippe showed that he is a strong contender for this race and beat the Spaniard’s time, stopping the clock at 21 minutes and 39 seconds.
First at the intermediate split, after completing the flat part of the course in a blistering time of 13:49, Alaphilippe smashed the competition on Mont-Brouilly, the 3km-long climb averaging 7.7%, which made for some big gaps and reshuffled the general classification. Alaphilippe became the first Frenchman in 25 years – since Jean-François Bernard on Col d’Eze – to win an individual time trial stage at the “Race to the Sun.”
“I am so happy. It’s a wonderful victory at the end of a nervous day. I knew I could do it, I knew I can get a good result on this parcours. When I crossed the finish line, I had a huge thought for my friend Fabien Rossolini (ed. – speaker at the Tour de France) who died a few weeks ago. I knew Paris-Nice was one of his favourite races and this makes my success even more special”, an ecstatic Julian said after seizing the lead at his home race.
Alaphilippe s’impose devant Contador et prend le maillot jaune / beats Contador and takes the lead #ParisNice pic.twitter.com/jM5BhYMIMa
— Paris-Nice (@ParisNice) 8 martie 2017
Paris-Nice 2017 – stage 4 results (Beaujeu – Mont Brouilly ITT):
| 1 | Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) | 21:39 |
| 2 | Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) | +19” |
| 3 | Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal) | +20” |
| 4 | Gorka Izagirre (Movistar) | ,, |
| 5 | Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) | +33” |
| 6 | David De La Cruz (Quick-Step Floors) | +45” |
| 7 | Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) | +47” |
| 8 | Sergio Henao (Team Sky) | +48” |
| 9 | Ion Izagirre (Bahrain Merida) | +49” |
| 10 | Richie Porte (BMC) | +50” |
General classification after stage 4:
| 1 | Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) | 12:36:27 |
| 2 | Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal) | +33” |
| 3 | Gorka Izagirre (Movistar) | +47” |
| 4 | Sergio Henao (Team Sky) | +01’05” |
| 5 | Daniel Martin (Quick-Step Floors) | +01’20” |
| 6 | Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) | +01’24” |
| 7 | Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) | +01’28” |
| 8 | Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) | +01’31” |
| 9 | Rudy Molard (FDJ) | +01’32” |
| 10 | Arnaud Demare (FDJ) | +01’35” |
