Julian Alaphilippe wins time trial and takes Paris-Nice overall lead

Quick-Step Floors' Julian Alaphilippe stunned everyone to beat Trek Segafredo's Alberto Contador by 19 seconds in the time trial on stage four to take the overall lead of Paris-Nice.

Credit: cyclingnews.com
Alaphilippe now sits atop the general classification by 33 seconds to Tony Gallopin (Lotto Fix ALL) and 47 seconds ahead of Gorka Izaguirre (Movistar). Sergio Henao (Team Sky) and Dan Martin (Quick-Step) move up into the top five, one minute five seconds and one minute 20 seconds behind respectively. Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step) and Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) occupy sixth and seventh, while Contador, after a disastrous first stage, makes it into the top ten - one minute 31 seconds down on Alaphilippe.

"I felt great coming into this race", said Alaphilippe, "I feel on peak form and this time trial was made for me - really fast at the start and then the climb at the end. I knew I was going to do well but I had no idea I'd won when I'd crossed the line."

The 14 kilometre time trial in the Rhone Alps consisted of a long flat section from Beajeu before tackling Mont Brouilly, a 3.3km climb which averages at 7.7% but features a brutal 25% ramp in the final 500 metres.

Stage five on Wednesday is the final opportunity for the sprinters, 199km from Quincie-en-Beaujolais to Bourg-de-Peage. There are a couple of tricky climbs with points available - a third and second category climb - so a breakaway is likely but expect the likes of Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step), Andre Greipel (Lotto Fix ALL), John Degenkolb (Trek Segafredo), Alexander Kristoff (Katusha-Alpecin) and Arnaud Demare (FDJ) to fight it out for the stage win.


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