Stage 4 - Neuchatel > Chateau d'Oex (La Dent) First real key stage for the GC, as we have a very challenging hilly stage today: the 193km parcours from Neuchatel to Chateau d'Oex features several tough climbs and an uphill finish up 'La Dent' - certainly a perfect day for climbers, who handle hilly stages pretty well.
Kwiatkowski as the favorite for the stage, just like last year's winner on this parcours: Roche. Also Meintjes, Roglic, Kiserlovski or Teuns/Hoelgaard as "punchy climbers", who want to gain valuable time on mountain goats such as Shikai/Choi, Nazaret or Penasa.
The stage kicks off with a Cat1 climb up 'Col du Chasseral' and a small group with six riders tries to break clear:
Contador amongst them and he easily takes the mountain sprint..
Also Puusepp (7th KoM 8pts) on the attack, taking 10pts..
Kanepejs (3rd KoM 16pts) takes 2pts for a tied KoM lead with Puusepp!
The break of the day is formed on the descent then - 6 riders would eventually make it into the group:
Contador Puusepp Öste-Macdonald Meier Dina Lindau (4th KoM 12pts)
Kanepejs failed to join the group, so Puusepp, Lindau and also Contador as probably the most promising riders the for KoM fight today!
Contador dominates the next two mountain sprints already in the fnal third of the stage! He beats Puusepp and Lindau at the first Cat4 climb and Lindau/Öste at the first Cat2 climb of the day (46km before the finish) - where he would also drop his breakaway companions to go for a solo attempt!
The peloton started to chase in the meantime and the latest climbs made for a major split in the pack now with 35km remaining and Contador leading by 2'48" on the bunch and just two former breakaway riders (Lindau and Öste) in between them..
68 riders left in the peloton, where Kulczyk, Netia and Generali set the pace and share the work properly. Some notable names already struggled to follow, being dropped with still three climbs to come:
Manfredi in a group A4 (more than a minute behind the peloton)
Campero in A5 (further 26 seconds in arrears)
Stetina in A6 (another 45 seconds behind)
The peloton enters the third to last climb 'Großer Saanenwald Pass' (7.7km, 4.5%) with 27km to the finish:
Contador as the only early breakaway rider left in the lead, being 1'40" ahead of the pack..
Rabottini Palini Hoelgaard Edmondson try to go clear from the main group now..
Garby Squire Nazaret would jump behind a few moments later!
Contador crosses the mountaintop (22km to the finish) with still a comfortable gap on the first chasing group(s) and he already did enough to secure himself the mountain classification for at least today:
Provisional KoM Contador 37, Lindau 25, Puusepp 21
Hoelgaard and Rabottini as the strongest in the new chasing group, dropping all other attackers easily and passing the mountain sprint with 52 seconds behind Contador and 1'02" advantage on the main group!
Edmondson, Palini as well as group Garby/Nazaret could not stay clear from this main group:
Hirschlein now setting the pace in the peloton, where just 40 riders are left with those 22.5km to go. A few more riders got dropped on this climb then:
Costagli Kennaugh as one of the latest riders being dropped..
Ignatiev could not follow earlier on, he's part of group Manfredi now..
The first chasing duo catches up to Contador 15km before the finish:
Hoelgaard keeps pushing and he goes clear from the leading group quickly!
The peloton is about 1'30" in arrears and with now 12.5km to go, there's a few more riders going clear from the group:
Kiserlovski Squire Eyob Garby, who is willing to gain back his losses so far!
The leading group(s) have entered the penultimate climb now: 'Les Coulaytes' (2.3km with 7.5%) about 7km before the finish..
The latest attackers managed to bridge across the leading riders quickly and they keep attacking on this climb then:
Kiserlovski goes past Hoelgaard!
Squire and Rabottini not far behind.. Eyob/Garby could not hang on with a strong Kiserlovski.. Contador is further 20 seconds behind..
The main group of GC conteders (27 riders) is 2'21" in arrears now that Kiserlovski pushes so hard!
Kwiatkowski may know that he has to limit the gap on Kiserlovski and he goes clear from the main group at the point of the climb!
Roche followd a few seconds later..
Meintjes jumps behind, too and De Clercq may be there to control the race for Roglic now!
It's a hectic race though and there's no real chance to take control of it:
Kiserlovski as already entered the final climb 'Le Dent' (3km with 8.2%) and he's already 55 seconds ahead of the next riders!
Squire Hoelgaard at 0.55
Rabottini at 1.14
Kwiatkowski at 1.49
Roche at 2.02 trying to catch up to Kwiatek now..
Meintjes at 2.17 just a few seconds ahead of a 14-men-group!
This group with other GC contenders goes into further pieces on this final climb and with less than one kilometre to go for Kiserlovski, we get a somewhat clearer picture of the situation behind Kwiatkwoski (still 1.43 behind Kiserlovski):
Kwiatkowski at 1.43
Roche at 1.52
Meintjes at 2.12
Nepomnyachsniy Penasa De la Cruz De Clercq Choi Scarponi Roglic Teuns at 2.34
A group with Eyob, Warbasse, Edmondson, Gaspar, Tvetcov at 3.00
Kiserlovski already celebrating his victory and that's a dominating win for him today! A huge ride after his attack and with tomorrow's mountain stage definitely suiting him, too, he definitely went for a crucial gap here.
Kwiatkowski and also Roche catch up to Squire and Hoelgaard with less than a kilometre to go!
Kwiatkowski with another acceleration now, trying to drop the others and limit the losses on Kiserlovski..
Rabottini 13 seconds in arrears.. Meintjes further 16 seconds!
Meintjes caught up to Rabottini a few moments later.. Kwiatkowski opened up a gap on Roche/Squire/Hoelgaard..
Penasa, Nepomnyachsniy, De la Cruz, Roglic and Choi form a next group.. Teuns a few metres behind.. Scarponi, Warbasse and De Clercq further 12 seconds in arrears..
+ 1'34" Kwiatkowski as 2nd
+ 1'46" Roche as 3rd
+ 2'07" Squire as a strong 4th on the stage..
+ 2'42" for a next group with De la Cruz completing the Top-5 of the stage
Roglic, Penasa, Nepomnyachsniy, Choi, Teuns, Meintjes and Hoelgaard in the same group then. Meintjes cracked on the final metres and could not hold on to his gap on this group..
+ 3'17" for Warbasse, Scarponi, Rabottini
+ 3'35" for Pfingsten (quite a strong ride)
+ 4'47" for De Clercq
+ 5'21" for a group with Garby, Shikai, Nazaret
+ 6'02" Van den Broeck
+ 6'16" Borisavljevic
+ 8'54" for a bigger group with Costagli and GC leader Ignatiev
+ 10'40" Campero as one of the biggest losers amongst the climbers today..
A tough stage, just like last year. The GC shaping up as follows now:
Kiserlovski did very well to gain back time he lost in the TTT - leading the GC by 36 seconds on Roche as 2nd! Kwiatkowski + 1.09 as 3rd, still in striking distance if he manages to attack Kiserlovski in the mountains tomorrow..
Meintjes (1.54) ahead of Squire (2.02) and Choi (2.08) - that's not impossible for a premium climber like Meintjes tomorrow. Also Roglic (2.13) ain't too far behind the podium as 8th in the GC.
Other mountain goats like Penasa (3.19), Shikai (4.47) or Nazaret (6.57) need an aggressive ride in the epic mountain stage then.
