00:12The time trial means that the GC riders will have to do their best and already fight for extra seconds.
00:20I think that's part of what makes a real Grand Tour.
00:23You should feel the challenge around every bend, especially at the Tour de France.
00:28So, yeah, I really enjoy that.
00:31My best memory of the Tour, it's actually the time trial I won Aerotland.
00:37Is Demi Vollering making a statement? Yes, she is!
00:40She smashes the time of Chloe Digert. Demi Vollering wins stage three.
00:46I know that we have a big chance of winning this again, so we will fight very hard for that.
00:52For a time trial, we ride a special bike set up in a specific position.
00:56We've got the aero bars at the front to get into a proper aerodynamic tuck.
01:00There's a disc wheel at the back and a deeper profile wheel up front, which helps carry more inertia.
01:05And then on the gearing side, we run much bigger chain rings simply because we've moved a lot faster on
01:11these bikes.
01:15What do you think of the time trial? It's unusual. I've never done a time trial on this scale before,
01:19so it's all a bit new to me.
01:21I'm hoping it'll be good. I'm not so sure.
01:24TT is quite honest. It's like you do your best against the clock and trying to keep aero is a
01:30fast course and then we'll see after when I cross the finish line.
01:42An individual time trial on the menu, but it won't be an easy 21 kilometer ride to Dijon.
01:48255 meters of elevation change with around 12 meters of climbing per kilometer.
01:52A very important exercise to establish GC positioning before the mountains come into play.
02:08Belgium's the early pace-setters, Sandrine Tass in the hot seat just six months after speed skating at the most
02:13recent Winter Olympics.
02:15Tass though had to give her place up to compatriot and national TT champion Lotte Klaas.
02:20A strong performance from the Fenix Premier Tech Rider, a day after the team celebrated Puck Pirasa taking the Polka
02:26Dots jersey.
02:28The time to beat 28-25 and that's exactly what Lika Nguyen did.
02:33A simply blistering pace, especially over the last 11 kilometers with an average speed of 56.2 kilometers per hour.
02:4025-year-old 51 seconds faster to deplace Klaas who waved goodbye to the hot seat.
02:45Time for the Visma rider to cool down before taking the throw.
02:52Olympic champion Kirsten Faulkner won the Pan-American time trial title back in March.
02:56But failed to match Nguyen's pace.
02:59And yet Welsh starlet Zoe Backstead was in good shape at the first checkpoint.
03:03The under-23 world champion in touching distance at kilometer 9.7 to set up a thrilling second section.
03:17One of the top favorites for this time trial has lost time on the running back to the finish.
03:24So Lika Nguyen must have flown down. Backstead finishes with the second fastest time.
03:30Into the final hour, the favorites for the stage came to the fore.
03:34Anna van der Breggen won the Giro Chrono back in June and aimed to do the same here.
03:39Meanwhile, the woman who pipped the Dutch rider to the most recent Vuelta title, Paula Blasi limbering up ahead of
03:45the white jersey effort.
03:46But the standout was Movistar's Swiss star targeting a third career tour stage win in her favorite activity.
03:53We're about to get started with the world champion, Marlon Reuser.
04:00In the last ten time trial she's ridden, she's won eight of them and one of them she didn't finish.
04:06Capturing the moment as Nguyen knew the biggest threats to her hot seat were hitting the road.
04:11Yet despite a big first checkpoint advantage, Ousser knew she couldn't relax giving Nguyen's blistering finish.
04:17Yet the Tour de France fam champion did not look at a position to challenge.
04:22Pauline Ferrand-Prévost, already over a minute down after 9.7 kilometers.
04:28The last down the ramp, Sigrid Hogsett.
04:31A proud moment to wear the leader's yellow jersey, but could she hold on to it?
04:36Her departure coincided with the arrival of Reuser and it all came down to a matter of seconds.
04:43Is this going to be the fastest time of the day in this time trial?
04:47Reuser into the hot seat by four seconds.
04:53In contrast, a day that only got worse for Ferrand-Prévost.
04:57The Visma leader shipped more time to come home well down on the new best time of Reuser.
05:03The reigning champion arrived without a win this season and worked to do to turn the frown upside down.
05:09Well, the last Tour TT was two years ago and it was won by Demi Vollering.
05:14This time it was looking an uphill struggle given she had the fifth best time at the time check, 23
05:19seconds off the pace.
05:23Second overall was a position that quickly sunk for Kim Le Corpinard.
05:28The Mauritian champion 10 seconds worse than Ferrand-Prévost as she too shipped over two minutes to Reuser.
05:36That left Vollering as the sole credible candidate and the 2023 champion did make up time.
05:42It wasn't enough for the win, but only 14 seconds off was a boost to her ambitions on the second
05:47Grand Boucle title.
05:52That left Hooset on the road, an unforgettable day in yellow after a stunning solo yesterday.
05:57That effort taking its toll as the Norwegian failed to find the rhythm to keep hold of the leader's jersey.
06:02That left Reuser celebrating double delight.
06:09No, thank you.
06:11Marlin Reuser is the winner of the time trial and the new yellow jersey.
06:16This was kind of the idea that we had since a long time.
06:19I knew this Tour de France is the first Tour de France that I really saw as my goal of
06:24the year, that I really targeted.
06:26So it was our project Dijon and that it worked off.
06:29It always is hard and you know it's not necessarily going to happen so that it happened like this super
06:36happy.
06:37Reuser's third stage win on the Tour and first since her last chrono success on a Grand Boucle in 2023.
06:44Only four seconds off, Nguyen's best ever Grand Tour finish and 14 seconds faster than Vollering.
06:51Only 20 seconds between the top four as Brittain Backstead served further notice of her talent.
06:57Four stages, four times, the stage winner has donned the yellow jersey and like Hogsett,
07:02Royce are doing it for the very first time.
07:04Vollering earning nearly a minute on her biggest GC rivals,
07:08Kerbal onto the overall podium as Hogsett slipped to fourth
07:11and a long way back for Ferran Prevost and Le Corpina over two minutes down.
07:19Lorena Rebus with a relative day off in terms of the points classification.
07:23She'll want to be at the front tomorrow, giving the early intermediate sprint 40km into stage 5.
07:31Puck Piddasa will have a much bigger challenge to her Queen of the Mountains jersey.
07:35No fewer than eight categorised climbs, three of them cat twos, to see who really has their legs.
07:45Blasi finally shaking off Neddermeyer and Holmgren in the white jersey fight,
07:5031 and 56 second gaps respectively heading into tomorrow's bouncing day.
08:00Plenty of ups and downs stage 5 could bring the GC battle to life.
