Welcome to the 4th stage and today we got our first GC battle! The profile is not the hardest and the chance of a mass sprint does exist. There are not many stages for the favorites to compete in, so we will definitely see many attacks from the favorites!
Break of the Day: Bruno Borges Tom Jelte Slagter Nicolas Edet Marcio Portela Nicolae Tanovitchii
Borges wins the last KoM sprint of the stage with 50 km left (3 minute lead)
Caruso is the first to try his luck today of the punchers! He got 33 km left to do something and might be able to join the break and catch his breath once there!
He is not alone to want to attack and 5 men tries to join him and the breakaway
Kadri Felline Reichenbach Lutsenko Vysna
With 17 km left the attackers are caught though! Some of the favorites decide to try their luck! There are only 30 seconds up to Caruso and the early breakaway riders
Skujins Van Garderen Gastauer
10 km later Pokerstars closes the gap to the 3 remaining attackers, just to see them attack once again!
With 3 km left Gastauer sets the other two back to the chasing pack and remains with a good gap down to the other favorites.
Just as Gastauer crosses the Flamme Rouge, the others set on a strong sprint in order to catch him! Nordhaug leads out the sprint, the closest to him are Zakarin Hagen Roche Zabel
Only 400 meters left for Gastauer! Hagen and Zakarin looks like the only ones with good speed in this finale!
Ben Gastauer wins the 4th stage and Hagen has to settle with second place. Zakarin, Ponzi and Zabel finish the Top 5.
Not huge gaps made today, but Ben Gastauer takes the GC lead, but can risk lose it tomorrow if Ciolek gets enough time bonifications
