We have to ride fast right away... 6 riders attacked and we want them back..

After we got them back, another 6 attacked starting the climb.. A.Ballan(BMC), A.Howes(GRS), L.Romero, M.Elmiger(IAM), F.Rodriguez(JBC) and J.Stemper(5HR)..

On top, L.Romero is first.. Stemper lost contact already..

At the descent, with almost all Jamis riders knocked down at this point, it´s J.Acevedo who leads the pack.. 2´12"gap..

15kms to go, A.Howes(GRS) attacks in the break...

Howes is back in the break group, Romero tries his luck, raising the pace..

Behind the break, J.Acevedo rides to the front of the pack..

..and there is the attack from Acevedo... P.Gilbert(BMC) reacts quickly... i can´t see any more riders counter...

..some riders stayed calm and B.Mollema(BEL) takes the win.. Acevedo finishes with this small group but he´s giving more time..

M.Cooke finishes completly empty and looses 2´54" (see gaps screen above) but he´s giving 3´05" too..

I´m not happy with this gaps, race directors are clearly screwing us up..

We have to defend our yellow jersey but kom jersey is our wish too, so L.Romero attacks before 1st kom sprint...

With peloton on his heels, Romero manages to get the points.. the until now kom leader J.P.McCarty(BPC) gets 4 points but aren´t enought to maintain the jersey on his shoulders.. Romero is the new kom leader now.

After that kom sprint, L.Romero and N.Brown(BLS) get away.. behind, D.Williams(5HR) and A.Ilesic(UHC) attack and will join this duo..

With Int. sprint getting closer, the pack is reducing their gap.. 3´08" for now with 50kms to go..

Last kom sprint, L.Romero takes the points again.. peloton is 2´34" behind.. from now on, the road goes only down..

When peloton reach last kom sprint, J.Acevedo attacks.. he has to gain some time..

.. but peloton has other plans and bring Acevedo and the break back before the end.. as they enter last km, P.Gilbert(BMC) leads..

One last turn before finish line..

.. and P.Gilbert takes the win.. great show of strenght.. M.Cooke suffered with the high pace but managed to stick with it.

Stage 4 brings us the first day with bad weather(tsmoha,new sky made by me), even if this stage might end in a mass sprint, we still have to watch for the breaks..

Astana and Garmin lead the pack for now, 5 riders have already escaped, soon we will start the chase..

With 56kms to go, breakaway has 3´03"gap..

The pack reach the 20kms mark... as some teams are really pushing hard at the front for a mass sprint finish, we sit back and try to keep safe..

At the front, J.Powers(JBC) leads a splitted breakaway group..

That small hill 13kms before the finish brought escapees back and really made some riders hit the wall.. B.J.Maynes is one of them but not J.Acevedo who´s attacking from the pack.. ( couldn´t resist to attack )

J.Acevedo is caught just before the 1km mark..

B.Bosic(AST) leads the sprint.. P.Gilbert(BMC) is fadding away.. M.Kreder(GRS) and H.Haussler(IAM) are coming fast...

.. but B.Bosic holds on to take the win.. no time lost for us.

With 16pts to be given at this kom sprint, L.Romero decides to attack early on..

Romero was joined by some other riders but they were caught by the pack half of the climb..

L.Romero got 6points, he now counts 52pts overall.. the pack goes downhill compact..

After the descent, 5 riders attacked, one is our G.Palma..

While Palma is not doing any pace at the front, we lead the peloton and try to keep the gap around 3´00"... we have really strong winds today..

43kms to go, we were having really dificulties to close the gap but fortunally some other teams want to bring the break back..

Closing the 10kms mark, the breakaway is caught... BMC did a great job there..

Now we know why BMC did all this work.. P.Gilbert starts to sprint.. M.Iglinskiy(AST) leads B.Bozic ..

Last turn..

P.Gilbert wins the stage and raises his lead in the points ranking..