Filippo Ganna was the fastest time triallist today ©Getty Images

Italian Filippo Ganna of Ineos-Grenadiers held onto victory on stage four of the 2022 Critérium du Dauphiné, excelling as expected on the time trial day, beating Belgian Wout van Aert by two seconds.

Ganna crossed the line in La Bâtie d'Urfé in 35min 32.58sec to win the 31.9 kilometre stage in front of the Jumbo-Visma rider and general classification leader, who was the last to leave.

Van Aert was able to catch France's Victor Lafay of Cofidis and nearly caught Lafay's compatriot David Gaudu of Groupama-FDJ.

Britain's Ethan Hayter was 17 seconds behind his Ineos-Grenadiers team-mate for third in the time trial.

Italian Matteo Cattaneo of QuickStep was far behind in fourth, 39 seconds adrift.

Wout van Aert was second in the time trial and remains in the lead of the general classification ©Getty Images
Wout van Aert was second in the time trial and remains in the lead of the general classification ©Getty Images

"It was a long day in the hot seat but in the end it's important not to stand up from this seat," said Ganna after the race. 

"Wout arrived really close but I was lucky that I won.

"When I saw it was raining this morning, I didn't think it was a super day but then we were lucky with the sun and the course was dry for everyone.

"That meant it was the same conditions for everyone.

"That's important to compare us."

Van Aert was able to extend his general classification lead - which was just six second before today - to 53 seconds, with Cattaneo his closest challenger.

Slovenian and Jumbo-Visma team-mate Primož Roglič sits third overall now, 56 seconds off the lead, while his team-mate Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard is 1min 26sec behind, setting the team up well for the second half of the competition.