At 193km in length and the flattest road stage of this year’s edition of the Tour de Suisse, it was expected to be a fast-paced day in the peloton. Riding in the race leader’s yellow jersey, Peter Sagan and his teammates would be riding to protect the race lead, having started the day with a three-second advantage in the GC competition. With an early categorised climb to traverse – the second category Breithöhe, it was a flat run to the finish, with only a small third category hill to cross before the finish in Champagne – not to be confused with the famed French wine region.
While a flat parcours would ordinarily encourage fast racing, the day started off slowly. The day’s breakaway managed to escape early on –a group of four – and while they built up a lead of three minutes on the peloton, the actual speed of the race was slow, covering just over 30km in the first hour. As had been the case for the past three days of the race, rain had made conditions challenging, driving the pace lower to avoid crashes.
Sure enough, as the sky and the roads began to clear, the pace increased steadily, the Tinkoff team taking control at the front to ensure the break didn’t gain too much of an advantage. With 80km still to go, the sprint teams joined in the chase, reducing the gap to just over two minutes. Peter and his teammates had no intention of pulling in the break too soon, only to give rise to another attack ahead of the finish, and so the pace was kept just fast enough to keep knocking seconds off the break before the final push to the line.
20km from the finish, the gap was down to 1’30”, and after riding hard out on the front for almost the whole stage, the signs of the strain were beginning to show, as one of the four dropped off the back, to be swallowed up by the bunch shortly afterwards. With only the third category Orges climb to cross, the gap was hovering just over a minute, before dropping rapidly as the peloton descended the other side and started the final push.
At the 10km point, with the gap down to twenty seconds and the pace high, it was clear the break was going to be caught. Hanging on as best they could however, they dragged the catch as long as they could, making the most of a descent to hold the peloton at bay, but to no avail – the catch was made with 4km left to go. With the peloton back in control, it was a furious pace in the run in to the finish line, and thoughts turned to the sprint – a narrow finishing stretch along with a tight right hand bend a few hundred metres before the line would complicate matters.
The UCI World Champion was supported well by his teammates, and while on the difficult finishing stretch Peter was able to position himself well round the final, treacherous bend, he was just beaten to the line. Part of a final group of three riders after a rider almost crashing slowed the bunch, the UCI World Champion was just unable to pass the second placed rider, taking third. After fighting hard to control the pace and protect his yellow race leader’s jersey, he simply wasn’t able to improve his position on the final turn at the end of a hard day’s racing.
From the race’s finish, Peter was comfortable with the day’s outcome. “It was a very tough stage with a strong headwind and the squad did a very good job in protecting and supporting me. However, one can’t always win and other riders proved faster in the final sprint.”
Sport Director, Patxi Vila was thrilled with the result. While the day didn’t end in a third straight win for Peter, it showed how well the team could work together and protect the jersey. “We tried for a third win today, but in the end the hat trick wasn’t possible. I’m still really happy – we pulled all day, honoured the yellow jersey and we were able to settle on the right break, which was hard as lots of people wanted to be in the move. Bodnar and Petrov did a great job to keep the job at a maximum of four minutes, they pulled for around 180km which was really strong. Then we got the help of Etixx in bringing it back for the sprint. The other guys took over for the sprint and did a good job for Peter. Gatto brought him into the sprint, and at the end Peter came through third. There was a tricky section at 150m to go and he was third through here and wasn’t able to pass.”
Taking the bonus time on the line and finishing two seconds ahead of the bunch, the Tinkoff leader finishes the day having extended his lead in the GC, as well as his lead in the points contest for the black jersey. Vila was happy with the team’s performance so far. “We showed again that we were able to control the race today and still challenge at the end. Our goal for the first four days was to win a stage and we’ve come away with two and yellow so we’re more than happy.”
Peter was quick to praise his teammates’ efforts in the opening stages, particularly after they had worked so hard today. “I’m very satisfied with keeping the leader’s and points jerseys and I look forward to five more stages where we will work hard to achieve the best result. I’d like to thank my teammates for the strong effort they have put in the first four, tough and wet stages at the Tour de Suisse.”
Tomorrow, the race hits the mountains. The 126.4km stage may be short, but it crosses two of the toughest – and most stunning – climbs in Switzerland. The Furkapass is the day’s first climb, coming after a long slow ascent from the start. The Hors Catégorie climb is one of the hardest of the race, topping out at 2,436m, and will have riders in the red before the climb up the Gotthardpass. The final Hors Catégorie climb brings the day to a close. After some comparatively flat days, this is where the GC race will begin to take shape. Vila was looking to the team members who had completed the recent Giro d’Italia to assess their climbing legs. “Tomorrow we will see. We go into the climbs – Boaro is still riding well on GC and we’ll support him to try and maintain this. He comes here from the Giro so it’s not predictable form, we will support him and see what he can do. Otherwise we’ll try and get in the breaks in the coming days and go for results this way too.”
Stage Result
1. Maximiliano Richeze (ARG) Etixx – Quick-Step 05:08:21
2. Fernando Gaviria (COL) Etixx – Quick-Step +00:00:00
3. Peter Sagan (SVK) Tinkoff Team 00:00:00
4. Tom Van Asbroeck (BEL) Team LottoNL-Jumbo +00:00:02
5. Jasper Stuyven (BEL) Trek-Segafredo +00:00:02
33. Juraj Sagan (SVK) Tinkoff +00:00:02
38. Oscar Gatto (ITA) Tinkoff +00:00:02
74. Jay McCarthy (AUS) Tinkoff +00:00:23
81. Manuele Boaro (ITA) Tinkoff +00:00:31
141. Ivan Rovny (RUS) Tinkoff +00:01:44
168. Maciej Bodnar (POL) Tinkoff +00:06:27
170. Evgeny Petrov (RUS) Tinkoff +00:06:27
GC After Stage 4
1. Peter Sagan (SVK) Tinkoff Team 14:22:30
2. Jurgen Roelandts (BEL) Lotto Soudal +00:00:09
3. Silvan Dillier (SWI) BMC Racing Team +00:00:09
4. Maximiliano Richeze (ARG) Etixx – Quick-Step +00:00:17
5. Jon Izaguirre (SPA) Movistar Team +00:00:19
32. Manuele Boaro (ITA) Tinkoff +00:00:56
49. Oscar Gatto (ITA) Tinkoff +00:02:16
59. Jay McCarthy (AUS) Tinkoff +00:03:15
86. Juraj Sagan (SVK) Tinkoff +00:05:48
125. Ivan Rovny (RUS) Tinkoff +00:09:14
136. Maciej Bodnar (POL) Tinkoff +00:14:08
145. Evgeny Petrov (RUS) Tinkoff +00:16:07
