World champion takes Peter Sagan on the line to get his first win in the rainbow jersey
Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervélo) won the fourth stage of the Tour de Suisse, between Grindelwald and Huttwil, in what turned out to be a two-man sprint with stage three winner Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) at the head of the peloton. It was the turn of the Slovakian to be denied a stage win on the line, as he had done to Damiano Cunego (Lampre-ISD) on the previous day, with the World champion coming around him in the final metres to take his first victory in the rainbow jersey.
Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM) led the rest of the peloton over, a long way behind the first two, ahead of José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar).
After two tough mountain stages, the 198km on the western side of the centre of the country presented far less daunting obstacles. The 2nd category Leuenberg in the first half of the stage, as well as two ascents of the 3rd category Ruppiswil in the closing stages, would provide plenty of opportunities for breakaway riders though, and make things tough for the pure sprinters.
Second time lucky for the breakaway with the sprints leader determined to get into it
Almost as soon as the peloton crossed the real start in the village of Wilderswil, Manuele Boaro (Team Saxo Bank) and Lloyd Mondory (AG2R La Mondiale) made a move; the peloton was too attentive at this point though, and the pair of them were pulled back after just a few kilometres. After 13km though, Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) and Cesare Benedetti (Team NetApp) tried their luck and successfully managed to escape.
Identifying that this was the move of the day, Mondory, wearing the blue jersey as leader of the sprints competition, chased across to the two riders.
With Chavanel the best placed of the three, at 26’26” behind Cunego, the Lampre-ISD team had no interest in chasing the breakaway riders down, so their lead grew to 7’40” after 32km. This was as it was to get for them though, and over the top of the Leuenberg after 62km, it was down to 5’40”.
Laurens Ten Dam (Rabobank), in the green mountains jersey, battled with Dario Cioni (Team Sky) for the remaining points at the top of the Leuenberg as the peloton rolled over the top. The Dutchman had very little to worry about, from Cioni or the three men out in front, since none of them were any threat at all to his healthy lead in the competition.
Omega Pharma-Lotto took over duties on the front and, after 80km, had stabilised the gap at around 4’30”.
The sprinters want the stage so the breakaway starts to come back
With number of teams coming forward to work to bring the trio back, including HTC-Highroad, Garmin-Cervélo, Team Sky and Omega Pharma-Lotto, the gap began to fall steadily; by the 75km go point it had come down to three minutes.
With 40km to go it was barely 1’30”, but if the peloton continued to close the gap at this rate it would catch them too soon; leaving itself open to counterattacks from fresher riders.
Mondory led over the finish line to start the 23km finishing circuit, and take six more points towards his blue jersey; the gap stood at 33 seconds. Alexandr Pliuschin (Katusha) attacked just before the line, but the roads at that point were too flat and straight for him to be able to get far, and he was quickly pulled back after the line.
With 20km to go the gap was 25 seconds as Team Sky moved forward in force.
With 18km to go, the three riders looked over their shoulders and saw the peloton bearing down on them. Chavanel was first to surrender, with Mondory caught soon afterwards; Benedetti refused to lie down though, but was snapped up after just a few hundred metres of resistance.
The breakaway is caught early which opens the door for others
The sprinters’ teams now had the task of keeping the speed high enough to prevent any attacks as they approached the finish; the second ascent of the Ruppiswil, with just 12km to go, would be a likely springboard for someone to launch something.
HTC-Highroad once again took control, with Omega Pharma-Lotto behind them, neither Mark Cavendish, nor André Greipel had looked very strong on the climbs up to that point and both teams were doubtless keep to keep the tempo steady, so as to not put them into difficulty so close to the finish.
The tempo set was not enough to prevent an attack coming in from Sergey Lagutin (Vacansoleil-DCM) though. The Uzbek quickly got a sizeable gap as he rode over the top, pursued by Jan Bakelants (Omega Pharma-Lotto); Daniel Oss (Liquigas-Cannondale) evidently liked the look of the move and managed to jump across on the sweeping descent.
Bakelants was there on behalf of Greipel, and contributed nothing to the pacemaking and, despite the best efforts of Oss, they couldn’t get more than a few seconds ahead of the peloton.
With 8.5km to go the two of them sat up, only for Leopold König (Team NetApp) to go. The Czech was joined by a number of others but the pace of the now Liquigas-Cannondale led peloton was relentless; so much so that Cavendish sat up, obviously not feeling on top of his game today.
Leopard Trek wants the stage, but not as much as the sprinters do
With 5km to go Euskaltel-Euskadi took over the front of the peloton with most of the team. The rest of the sprinters were well represented though, with Leopard Trek moving forward.
The Luxembourg team was not working for a sprinter though, which became plain when Jens Voigt put in a huge attack with 4km to go. The German veteran was soon out of sight as the course made its way through a forest; the teams hesitated, looking at one another, for a while, but soon got organised again.
Liquigas-Cannondale put itself to the fore again and Voigt was steadily pulled back; it was Euskaltel-Euskadi on the front though, as the Leopard Trek rider was caught with just over a kilometre and a half to go.
Under the final kilometre banner it was HTC-Highroad once again, even though Cavendish was no longer there, but Stuart O’Grady (Leopard Trek) jumped off the front, just as Voigt had done. The Aussie was not able to get as far as his teammate though and he was soon pulled back.
Liquigas-Cannondale launched Sagan into the finishing straight and he looked as though he might be on for a second consecutive stage. Hushovd had other ideas though, and steadily pulled himself past the Slovakian to take his first win in the rainbow jersey.
Marcato was third, a long way behind the leading two; with virtually the entire peloton finishing together there were no changes to the overall standings, with Cunego holding on to his yellow jersey for another day.