The first of 2 puncheur-favoured stages to finish our time here in Norway. This one is 193km and will provide opportunities in the 2nd half as well as the finale to gain back time lost yesterday.
The favourites with the bookies are the top puncheurs. Some here have a lot of time to gain to achieve a strong GC result so this could be an interesting one in terms of strategy and approach. We hope they throw the kitchen sink at it!
Breakaway yet to settle due to some of the riders involved. The order over the first KOM sprint is Poljanski, Malecki (2'46) and Trakhov.
130km now to go and we have a breakaway of 11 with a 3'19 gap back to the Peloton. There are some dangerous riders in here! Interesting to note Grieg have sent a rider here, clearly they have no intention on working at the front of the Peloton on a stage like this.
Time
HIL
Belevics
+ 1'57
63
Malecki
+ 2'46
76
Rodriguez
+ 3'03
75
Arslanov
+ 3'18
68
Poljanski
+ 3'53
77
Chernetskiy
+ 4'00
79
Asgreen
+ 4'14
77
Trakhov
+ 4'56
79
Rodriquez Galindo
+ 5'17
76
Meeus
+ 6'19
64
Zordan
+ 8'47
77
100km now to go and the gap down to 2'25.
The 2nd KOM of the day and Zordan wins it. Poljanski is 2nd which takes him level at the top.
Poljanski is really laying a claim here and wins the 3rd KOM sprint, there is still another one a bit further down the road.
45km and the gap at 1'44 but the focus here is on the GC. Gidich has had his domestiques working hard on the front for a while now, clearly trying to set a good pace.
Malecki wins the last KOM sprint of the day and goes to 2nd, 6 points behind Poljanski.
Meanwhile in the Peloton, the pace set by Mapei for Buchmann has started dropping a lot of riders off the back of the Peloton so we'll see a big GC shake-up today.
22km left for our 6 leaders who are 1'45 clear of the Peloton. They will be thinking about a stage win!
It's been mostly downhill since the KOM sprint so out 6 leaders are still 1'16 clear with 6km to go as they hit the base of the climb. This won't be easy though.
We fast-forward to 500m to go and Gidich has led the Peloton to the last of the escapees and is fighting for the stage win. Buchmann is closest to him.
It's a close run thing in the end but Gidich wins the stage ahead of Buchmann and Wirtgen.
Phinney is 4th with Izagirre 5th.
Wurtz may not be well placed but the important thing is that he's here in the first 71 riders all given the same time!
One of the groups further back including Van Niekerk comes in 4'32 behind Gidich. His joy from yesterday is short lived.
Wurtz still in the Lead going into the final stage tomorrow. It won't be an easy task but he's halfway there. Many changes to the Top 10 after he and Phinney. The puncheurs will really need to do a bit more tomorrow if they want to take the GC off the Dane.
Tour of Norway - Stage 4 Report 
