A time trial stage and at 34km, a long one these days.Gee Whizzes: a long day concluded with a lively uphill sprint. IPTs Krists Neilands launched in the final kilometre and got a gap forcing others to chase. When he was brought back his team mate Derek Gee countered and was clear but had Roman Grgoire closing in. The 21 year old French man came past Gee but visibly at great cost, he seemed to be buckling with the effort and needed the finish line to come right away only Gee suddenly had a wheel to sit on and popped him for the win. Lukas Nerurkar was the best of the rest in third place, even younger than Grgoire at 20.The Route: 34.4km, long these days for a time trial, more than the Tour de France (just), more than the Vuelta and only the Giro had longer. Its stage in two halves, the first part is on big straight roads and then once the course crosses the Loire river it goes onto smaller roads that twist, turn and climb to the finish although this second half is harder but its no maze.The Contenders: world champ Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep) finds a course to suit but is the form there? Hes cut a discreet figure so far in the opening stages.Josh Tarling (Ineos) is the time trial specialist out to usurp his own team mate Ganna as the invincible figure of time trials but hasnt raced since being disqualified from Paris-Roubaix.Juan Ayuso (UAE) looks like a climber but of his seven pro wins, three have come from World Tour level time trials.Primo Rogli (Bora-hansgrohe) looked sharp on the second stage, but its a lot to extrapolate this to a 34km TT.TarlingEvenepoel, Rogli, AyusoSobrero, Vlasov, ArmirailWeather: sunshine and 24C.TV: the final 90 minutes are on TV and last rider is in before 5.00pm.Postcard from Saint-German-LavalTodays start and finish towns are not famous at all, one theme of this years Dauphin is how it is visiting small towns and villages. The finish town of Neulise population 1,347 made the headlines last July when a hailstorm ravaged the place, these things happen but some hailstones were 10cm in diameter. You wouldnt want to be out cycling that day.Whats notable today is how close todays stage is to other recent time trial stages of the Dauphin. Last years TT won by Mikkel Bjerg was a just few kilometres over to the north-east; the 2022 battle between Filippo Ganna and Wout van Aert was a few kilometres to the south in La Btie dUrf, 2021s TT was a bit further south but still close to the Loire river like today, and the 2019 edition won by Van Aert but probably more notable for Chris Froomes ruinous recon crash was just a few kilometres away to the north-west. So somehow this is time trial central for the Critrium du Dauphin.The race often needs a time trial stage in order to give balance to the Alpine finish and enhance the weeks feel of a Tour de France redux. Yet today only a small share of the peloton will be racing for the win or even racing for a time, for many even most its an active recovery ride. Its not exceptional given a sprint stage can see most of the field just aiming to complete the course and sometimes for minimal effort all day too; but its actively encouraged today by the 25% time cut; in the Giro this was 30% for the time trial stages, more than any other type of day. As crushing as Pogaars ride in Perugia was, the last rider was only ten minutes down, safely inside the roughly fifteen minute margin. So while today is billed as the race of truth, for many its truthfully not a race at all. They can save energy today in order to attack in the coming days.The post Critrium du Dauphin Stage 4 Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.