admirschleck wrote:
This must be the slowest story ever. It's there for a year already and it had huge amount of 3 (!) race reports. And it's still "alive"! Even Ian can't beat this pace.

This fourth stage finally brings us into Gabon. There are no big problems during this stage, it’s mostly the tricky downhill on one third of the stage that will do the job, although the succession of small hills in the end could be a chance for guys like D.Ulissi (Lampre), R.Bardet (AG2R) and M.Moser (Cannondale) to make their move for a day victory.


A.Vicioso (Katusha), A.Malori (Lampre) and D.van Niekerk (MTN) form today’s break of the day.


This is quite a boring stage, there’s 30 kilometres till the finish, the break still has a gap and Vini Fantini does it’s usual business and tries to bring the three back.


The escapees seem to make it till the end! Van Niekerk is the first one trying to escape for the stage win.


Okay, we’re getting used to this now. The group of favourites attacks again to win some time for the GC, this time it’s S.Clarke (Orica), M.Moser (Cannondale), R.Bardet (AG2R), P.Kennaugh (Sky), D.Ulissi (Lampre), F.Kessiakoff (Astana) and race leader M.Rabottini (Vini Fantini) break away with 6 km to go.


Vicioso and Malori catch van Niekerk within the last kilometre. It’s between these two for the victory.


Malori gets it! He wins the sprint for the Lampre team, Vicioso comes a tiny piece of wheel too short and takes second. Van Niekerk still has enough power left to complete the podium.


The peloton comes over the line, with the favourites still a few seconds before the pack. All the Telkom-riders finish in the pack, they had a hard time on the hills but survived this stage. Tesfay Habtemariam does drop a few places in the GC though, because of the break making it all the way.

1	Adriano Malori	Lampre - Merida	2h38'28
2	�ngel Vicioso	Katusha Team	s.t.
3	Dennis Van Niekerk	MTN - Qhubeka	+ 17
4	Diego Ulissi	Lampre - Merida	+ 3'39
5	Moreno Moser	Cannondale Pro Cycling	+ 3'45
6	Fredrik Kessiakoff	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
7	Simon Geschke	Team Argos - Shimano	s.t.
8	Simon Clarke	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.
9	Romain Bardet	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.
10	Steven Kruijswijk	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
…	…	…	…
70	Merhawi Kudus	Team Telkom-Ecobank	+ 4'45
76	Daniel Nambwe	Team Telkom-Ecobank	s.t.
86	Tesfay Abraha Habtemariam	Team Telkom-Ecobank	s.t.
87	Chibesa Mwanza	Team Telkom-Ecobank	s.t.
98	Johannes Goedhals	Team Telkom-Ecobank	s.t.
101	Robert Wanyama	Team Telkom-Ecobank	s.t.
115	Runako Edwards	Team Telkom-Ecobank	s.t.
155	Saare Gebremedhin	Team Telkom-Ecobank	s.t.

Although the profile is kinda hilly in the beginning, this should be a stage for the sprinters. A.Kruopis, A.Davis (both Orica) and F.Gavazzi (Androni) have marked this stage in their agendas.


Here's the quartet of riders trying it in today's breakaway: V.Kiryienka (Sky), P.Gretsch (Argos), L.Meintjes (MTN) and TJ.Slagter (Belkin).


Vini Fantini is doing it's thing again at the front of the pack. They're not very active, and the World Tour-teams aren't doing some relaying either. The gap with the break stays around five minutes for a long time.


As nothing happened during the middle part of the stage, I'll skip directly to the end. Garmin takes over with ten kilometres to go and pull the pace so high that there are a few riders who can't keep up anymore…


…including 5 of our guys, of whom Robert Wanyama and Saare Gebremedhin are pictured in this image. Worse news for us is that Tesfay Habtemariam, by far our best rider until now, also had to drop.


Back to the front again. The break is reeled in and the sprinters are preparing for the final sprint. Just a moment before the red banner it looks like this. There are a few duo’s (Garmin, Bardiani, Androni, Vacansoleil) combined with some riders who have to do it all alone (A.Vicioso for Katusha, M.Morkov for Saxo). The high pace of Garmin is clearly visible by the few competitors for today’s victory as well as the absence of guys like A.Kruopis, A.Davis (both Orica), B.Bozic (Astana), B.Eisel (Sky) and Y.Hutarovich (AG2R).


Garmin’s work pays off as R.Navardauskas sprints to victory! The Lithuanian was launched by M.Kreder and couldn’t be stopped afterwards. S.Colbrelli (Bardiani), B.van Poppel (Vacansoleil) and F.Gavazzi (Androni) are the closest contenders of Navardauskas.


This was a messed up stage for us. Merhawi Kudus was the only one of our team who was able to stay in the front of the pack. Daniel Nambwe and Chibesa Mwanza had to fight for it, but eventually finished in the back of the pack. But the other five couldn’t return to the peloton after Garmin’s high speed massacre, which means that Tesfay Habtemariam lost his top 25 in the GC, and that the other four even got more behind in that same GC. And if that wasn’t enough, three of our riders finished in the last three places of the stage results, with Johannes Goedhals (pictured) being last for a second time in this race. I predicted a better DS debut for myself…

1	Ramunas Navardauskas	Garmin - Sharp	4h24'12
2	Sonny Colbrelli	Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox	s.t.
3	Boy Van Poppel	Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
4	Mattia Gavazzi	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	s.t.
5	Jonathan Cantwell	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	s.t.
6	Christopher Sutton	Sky Procycling	s.t.
7	Paul Martens	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
8	Michel Kreder	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.
9	Michael Mørkøv	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	s.t.
10	Fabio Felline	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	s.t.
…	…	…	…
35	Merhawi Kudus	Team Telkom-Ecobank	s.t.
140	Daniel Nambwe	Team Telkom-Ecobank	s.t.
187	Chibesa Mwanza	Team Telkom-Ecobank	s.t.
189	Runako Edwards	Team Telkom-Ecobank	+ 4'04
190	Tesfay Abraha Habtemariam	Team Telkom-Ecobank	+ 4'43
194	Robert Wanyama	Team Telkom-Ecobank	+ 6'00
195	Saare Gebremedhin	Team Telkom-Ecobank	s.t.
196	Johannes Goedhals	Team Telkom-Ecobank	+ 7'19

1	Matteo Rabottini	Vini Fantini - Selle Italia	16h14'23
2	Fredrik Kessiakoff	Astana Pro Team	+ 1'20
3	Moreno Moser	Cannondale Pro Cycling	+ 1'28
4	Romain Bardet	AG2R La Mondiale	+ 1'32
5	Diego Ulissi	Lampre - Merida	+ 1'34
6	Simon Geschke	Team Argos - Shimano	+ 2'52
7	Peter Kennaugh	Sky Procycling	s.t.
8	Steven Kruijswijk	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
9	Simon Clarke	Orica - GreenEdge	+ 3'16
10	Ramunas Navardauskas	Garmin - Sharp	+ 3'59
…	…	…	…
86	Tesfay Abraha Habtemariam	Team Telkom-Ecobank	+ 14'11
102	Daniel Nambwe	Team Telkom-Ecobank	+ 15'03
121	Merhawi Kudus	Team Telkom-Ecobank	+ 16'23

1	Matteo Rabottini	Vini Fantini - Selle Italia	53
2	Fredrik Kessiakoff	Astana Pro Team	49
3	Moreno Moser	Cannondale Pro Cycling	41
4	�ngel Vicioso	Katusha Team	40
5	Sonny Colbrelli	Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox	40

1	Louis Meintjes	MTN - Qhubeka	11
2	Riccardo Chiarini	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	10
3	Jóni Brandão	Efapel - Glassdrive	9
4	Jonas Ahlstrand	Team Argos - Shimano	9
5	Tom Van Asbroeck	Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise	9

1	Moreno Moser	Cannondale Pro Cycling	16h15'51
2	Romain Bardet	AG2R La Mondiale	+ 4
3	Diego Ulissi	Lampre - Merida	+ 6
4	Peter Kennaugh	Sky Procycling	+ 1'24
5	Ramunas Navardauskas	Garmin - Sharp	+ 2'31
…	…	…	…
28	Tesfay Abraha Habtemariam	Team Telkom-Ecobank	+ 12'43
34	Daniel Nambwe	Team Telkom-Ecobank	+ 13'35
47	Merhawi Kudus	Team Telkom-Ecobank	+ 14'55

1	Lampre - Merida	48h56'41
2	Katusha Team	+ 6'54
3	Cannondale Pro Cycling	+ 7'54
4	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	+ 8'47
5	Vini Fantini - Selle Italia	+ 9'07
…	…	…
18	Team Telkom-Ecobank	+ 23'14