Juri Sagan
The fourth and longest stage of this year’s race took the riders over 152.8km of hilly terrain from Norwood to Murray Bridge. Several of the fast men saw today as a chance to notch up another win, and with 10km remaining, the sprinters’ teams gradually began manoeuvring themselves to the head of the field, where the fight for the best position began in earnest. BORA – hansgrohe also came to the front and in a hectic finale, Martin Laas crossed the line in sixth place, with teammate Erik Baška taking out eighth position, while C. Ewan took the honors.
Result
01 C. Ewan 3:29:08
02 S. Bennett +0:00
03 J. Philipsen +0:00
04 A. Greipel +0:00
06 M. Laas +0:00
08 E. Baška +0:00
From the finish line
“The plan was to ride for me today. However, unfortunately I didn’t feel so good at the beginning of the race, and had some pain in my legs. I hoped, that my condition would improve throughout the course of the race, but after the first half of racing, I wasn’t in an ideal situation. After talking with the Sports Director, we decided that we would ride for Erik. Over the final 5km, it was relatively hectic and we were pushed back somewhat. I tried to ride to the front, and was able to make it up there. I had Juraj Sagan and Michael Schwarzmann still with me, but unfortunately we lost contact with each other. I passed through the last corner in sixth place, and it was clear that we wouldn’t be able to win the stage.” – Martin Laas
“Today was a stage for the sprinters, and we wanted to ride for Martin, however during the race he didn’t feel so good, so we changed plans to focus on Erik. The finale was quite tumultuous and didn’t run quite as we had expected. Both riders went through the final corner in a good position, but in the end it wasn’t enough. The result wasn’t what we were hoping for but we still have potential for improvement, and we’ll try to capitalise on that during the next races. Tomorrow brings another opportunity for a sprint, so we will see what we can achieve there.” – Enrico Poitschke, Sports Director