After winning the Critérium du Dauphiné stage 4, the attention was focused on Remco Evenepeol (Soudal-QuickStep), but Primoš Roglić (Bora-Hansgrohe) also took a big step in the race since Itzulia of the Basque country, who took third place in the time trial. 

Roglich was just 34.4 seconds away from the Belgian lead after losing to ITT world champion Evenepoel and European champion Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers) in the 33km race with the clock.

This was a major step in Roglic's preparation for the Tour de France, leading Bora Hansgrohe after joining the team from Jumbo Visma, but after yesterday's crash the Slovenians were willing to put the rubber side down.

"I'm happy, I was riding my bike, so it's improved considerably since yesterday," Roglić said with a big smile to reporters, including CyclingProNet, after the line. "It was all fine, stay on two wheels, it's a good thing."

Despite moving to the yellow jersey, Evenepoel insisted before the race that he was not heading to the Dauphine with the ambition to go overall. But this may still be the case, as he and Roglić are well aware that the toughest mountain stages that determine the race have not yet arrived at the weekend.

"It's just the beginning, it's the first," Roglić said before admitting that tomorrow's stage to Saint-Priest is "easy" as the trio of summits starting on Friday are likely to decide the victory.

The Slovenian is still not 100% after returning from the massive Italia crash and long altitude camp in Sierra Nevada along with many of Bora's interim tour teams, but he hopes to gain more racing experience with his new team TT equipment in 2024 and that he will be able to race rather than train. It was the first time that I had been able to do so.

"I did quite a bit of training. Sure, I'm not the best to come here, but I think it's still better to race than to train," the 34-year-old said. 

"I never do anything like this in training. It's quite a change [equipment] and, in fact, it's really a first time trial for me. The Basque was like a prologue."

He also claimed he had no lingering problems from the crash in Stage 3, leaving a torn jersey and visible abrasions on his back, and admitted that his feet were more painful in a 42-minute full-gas effort.

Roglich is also not overly pleased with his pace and joking about how he is always trying to get a fast start but not managing it, but with only 26 seconds behind evenepoel and 24 seconds behind Tarling, 2 of the best TT riders in the world will be able to reach the 10km mark. After the open flat, far from the signs of poor form.

"I'm always trying to get started in full, but I'm never going to succeed with it, so in the end it always gets better. So fortunately, you take the time at the end and not the first middle," Rogliù joked.

Alongside a strong start, Olympic ITT champion Roglic lost only 13 seconds to reach the finish and showed great signs of the tour. Most of the remaining GC fields were lost for more than 1 minute, and many of them lost 2 by the time they reached Neulise.

The Slovenians had pointed out how the Dauphine Stage 4 differs from the final stage ITT of the 2024 Tour de France. But with a total of 59 kilos against the clock coming into the tour, Logric looked as if he was approaching his best time trial form.