Time trial day at the Dauphine leaves the GC shaken if not stirred. The women’s worlds tour arrives in the UK for the start of the OVO Women’s Tour – and holy moly it’s a heck of stage.

Dauphine Stage 4:La Tour-du-Pin to Bourgion-Jalieu, ITT, 23.5km

Richie Porte (BMC) sizzled in the race of truth to take victory and deliver a sharp reminder to his rivals for this title and the Tour. The Australian beat World Champion Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin) by 12secs, with Alejandro Valverde (I KNOW!) at +24secs in third.  Thomas de Gendt finished 9th, enough to see the Lotto- Soudal rider retain the yellow jersey by 27secs from Porte. Chris Froome (Sky) was off the pace by his standards finishing 8th(just slower than Alberto Contador) and conceding 37secs.

Always fascinates me that a team and rider will spend hours in a wind tunnel refining positions and skinsuit design, let alone the design of the bikes. Fine tuning everything to give the sleekest, swiftest time against the clock – and then dossard flappage happens…

Full report at Cycling News

Race Website  Race Twitter #Dauphine

OVO Energy Women’s Tour Stage 1: Daventry to Kettering, 148km

When Kasia Niewiadoma struck out solo with 47km to go, just about everyone thought it was an attack to leave WM3 Energie teammate Marianne Vos fresher for the expected sprint finale. The peloton hesitated behind (really they should have known better) and the Polish national champion was away and clear coming across the line with 1:42mins to spare. The strategy worked like a charm as Vos outsprinted Christine Majerus (Boels-Dolmans) for second.  An exuberant Niewiadoma now leads the race by 1:46.

Video. (For those in the UK a reminder that ITV4 is the place for highlights every night – Stage 1 here)

Image of the day. The pink ribbon is from Breast Cancer Care

A lot of the time I was thinking about the girl who wrote my Breast Cancer Care pink ribbon; somehow I felt a lot of energy from her. I felt that we could do it.

The Women’s Tour always brings the fans out. It’s exciting and really deserves to be LIVE. But remember you can get all the buzz and excitement from the incredible Sarah Connolly on her Twitter. She has it all, interviews, videos and a whole host of race info.

Full report at Cycling News

Race Website  Race Twitter #OVOWT

Header image: Kasia Niewiadoma   LC/Tim De Waele/Corbis via Getty Images