Despite the Critérium du Dauphiné's opening stage throwing up an earlier-than-expected general classification test, stage 4's individual time trial looks set to be the first real face-off between the three Tour de France favourites, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep).
This will be their first such encounter since the final stage of the Tour in Nice almost 12 months ago.
The trio all helped to ignite the Dauphiné on the opening day, as Pogačar scored the stage 1 win, holding off the peloton by the barest of margins.
Only 11 seconds separate them after three stages of racing, with the Slovenian currently in ninth, 1:06 behind race leader and stage 3 winner Iván Romeo (Movistar).
However, stage 4 looks certain to create wider gaps within the overall standings. The 17.4km route from Charmes-sur-Rhône to Saint-Péray consists of 210m of elevation gain, most of which will be tackled in one go on the lone 1.6km climb of the day at Les Freydières, 6km into the course and with an average gradient of 9.4%.
Speaking to the media ahead of stage 3, Evenepoel gave his assessment of the impending race against the clock while appearing to suggest that time trial form might not have a major impact on next month's Grand Tour.
"I think for tomorrow, it's just [about] trying to not go over the limit to the bottom of the climb and then just go all out until the top. I'll try to keep the pace to the finish line for a good TT," he explained.
"We're confident that I'm in good shape to do a good time trial tomorrow."
The next time after stage 4 of the Dauphiné that the main protagonists of men's road cycling will battle it out against the clock should be stage 5 of the Tour de France in Caen.
Asked for his early thoughts on what that stage might do to the race and yellow jersey battle, Evenepoel seemed indifferent.
"It's really flat, so there you need horsepower," he said. "But I think a Grand Tour, you win in the mountains, and not necessarily on the TT. For the moment, we're doing a pretty good job with that balance."
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