Tour of Britain 2018 – Stage 4 [FULL STAGE]

September 05, 2018

Tour of Britain 2018 – Stage 4 – Nuneaton – Royal Leamington Spa : 183 km

With no Lars Boom, the 2018 OVO Energy Tour of Britain is without its defending champion. However, the Dutchman’s LottoNL-Jumbo team are bringing none other than Primož Roglic – the Slovenian star who took a solo stage win in the Pyrenees and fourth place overall at this year’s Tour de France. And it gets even better than that, with 2018 Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas and four-time Tour winner Chris Froome lining up for Team Sky at the race. Add to the mix sprinters André Greipel (Lotto Soudal), Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott) and Fernando Gaviria, plus the latter’s Quick-Step Floors teammate and the winner of two stages and the polka-dot jersey as best climber at this year’s Tour de France, Julian Alaphilippe, and it quickly becomes apparent that the Tour of Britain organisers are doing nothing short of spoiling roadside – and armchair – fans at this year’s race. On the racing front, the uphill team time trial on stage 5 brings something new to the table, while the climbers are catered for with a double ascent of the same climb used for the TTT – albeit from the other side of Whinlatter Pass – the next day. With sprinting opportunities aplenty, and the big finish in London, it all adds up to suggest that this year’s eight-day race could be one of the best yet.

André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) won stage 4 of the Tour of Britain in a bunch sprint in Royal Leamington Spa. The German delivered a powerful finish to come home ahead of Sacha Modolo (EF-Drapac) and Patrick Bevin (BMC Racing Team), who retains the overall lead.

The emphatic victory was Greipel’s second of the race after his triumph in Newport on the opening day. Greipel was sagely tucked into third position coming into the sharp left-hand bend that preceded the finishing straight, and he proceeded to unleash a characteristically imposing sprint from distance to notch up his eighth win of the season.

“I knew it was going to be a long sprint, but I just went full gas out of the corner and it worked perfectly I guess. If you’re not in front after the corner, it’s difficult to do your own sprint,” Greipel said afterwards. “It was important to have a good position there [in the final corner]. The other guys made a really great job to keep me up there, it was really messy. Jasper [De Buyst] did a good job for me, he was strong.”

While Greipel’s raw strength carried him to the stage win, Bevin’s third-place finish owed as much to the quickness of his thinking as it did to the considerable speed of his legs. The New Zealander cannily stole into first place on the final corner by taking the inside line in a manner reminiscent of Oscar Freire, and though he was overpowered by Greipel and Modolo within sight of the line, he did enough to earn a four-second time bonus and buttress his overall lead.

Bevin is now four seconds ahead of Cameron Meyer (Mitchelton-Scott) and six up on Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) in the general classification ahead of Thursday’s team time trial in Cockermouth.

“It was the plan to be first into the last corner,” Bevin said. “If you’re going to lead out, you’re not going to win, but you might get a podium and some more time. With 400 metres to go I had Jempy [Drucker] drop me off and then I came up the inside of the corner.”

Rick Zabel (Katusha-Alpecin) placed fourth on the stage ahead of Carlos Barbero (Movistar), while Emils Liepinš (ONE Pro Cycling) came sixth. Neither Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott) nor Fernando Gaviria – whose Quick-Step Floors team was so prominent in chasing down the break – made any impact in the sprint.

How it unfolded

There was precious little resistance to the formation of the day’s early break as the Tour of Britain left the start in Nuneaton on Wednesday. Paul Ourselin (Direct Energie), Thomas Moses (JLT Condor), Matthew Holmes (Madison Genesis), Alex Paton (Canyon-Eisberg), Nicholas Dlamini (Dimension Data) and Hayden McCormick (ONE Pro Cycling) forged clear in the opening kilometre and the peloton was happy to grant the sextet a degree of freedom.

The escapees quickly established a lead of two minutes over the bunch, where Mitchelton-Scott, Quick-Step, Lotto Soudal and BMC all contributed on the front at various points to keep the advantage within manageable dimensions.

Holmes led the break over the climb at Ilmington, Edge Hill and Burton Dassett, but Dlamini was second on each occasion, and that was enough to put the South African into the lead in the king of the mountains classification.

His work done for the day, Dlamini dropped back from the break with 35km to go, by which point the gap was hovering above the one-minute mark. Ewan was briefly distanced from the peloton, which only served to increase the intensity of the chase, though the Australian quickly regained contact ahead of the run-in.

Iljo Keisse (Quick-Step), Robert Power (Mitchelton-Scott) and Jens Keukeleire (Lotto Soudal) were particularly prominent in helping to shut down the break, and Keisse kept up his effort deep into the finale, remaining on the front into the final 5 kilometres.

By that point, only Ourselin and McCormick remained in front from the early break, and they were swept up soon afterwards as the speed ratcheted upwards ahead of the inevitable bunch finish.

EF-Drapac led into the final two kilometres, before Julian Alaphilippe took over for Quick-Step beneath the flamme rouge. Bob Jungels followed with a long turn on the front, but Gaviria was never in the running in the sprint. Greipel emerged from the chaos to claim a resounding win, while Bevin had the nous to ensure he bolstered his overall advantage ahead of Thursday’s novel, 14km team time trial, the second half of which is almost entirely uphill.

“It is very different, but it’s what we came here to target,” Bevin said of the team time trial. “Everything up to this point has been a bonus. It’s tough to read, and I think that if any team has a bad day they’ll lose a lot of time and that’ll be their overall chances gone.”

Results :

General Classification after Stage 4 :
1 Patrick Bevin (NZl) BMC Racing Team 15:25:11
2 Cameron Meyer (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:04
3 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:06
4 Jasha Sutterlin (Ger) Movistar Team 0:00:16
5 Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky
6 Christopher Hamilton (Aus) Team Sunweb
7 Bob Jungels (Lux) Quick-Step Floors
8 Primoz Roglic (Slo) LottoNL-Jumbo
9 Hugh Carthy (GBr) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale 0:00:23
10 Scott Davies (GBr) Dimension Data 0:00:26
11 Mads WŸrtz Schmidt (Den) Katusha-Alpecin 0:00:50
12 Pascal Eenkhoorn (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
13 Dmitry Strakhov (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
14 Dion Smith (NZl) Wanty-Groupe Gobert 0:00:53
15 Jose Joaquin Rojas (Spa) Movistar Team
16 Xandro Meurisse (Bel) Wanty-Groupe Gobert
17 Jos van Emden (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
18 Max Stedman (GBr) Canyon-Eisberg
19 André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal
20 Neilson Powless (USA) LottoNL-Jumbo
21 Tom Pidcock (GBr) Team Wiggins
22 Ethan Hayter (GBr) Great Britain
23 Edmund Bradbury (GBr) JLT Condor
24 Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Direct Energie
25 Alessandro Tonelli (Ita) Bardiani CSF 0:00:55
26 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team 0:01:12
27 James Shaw (GBr) Lotto Soudal 0:01:28
28 Scott Thwaites (GBr) Dimension Data 0:01:44
29 Connor Swift (GBr) Madison Genesis 0:01:46
30 Ruben Fernandez (Spa) Movistar Team 0:02:53
31 Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) Quick-Step Floors 0:02:59
32 Stephen Williams (GBr) Great Britain
33 Sacha Modolo (Ita) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale 0:03:30
34 Emils Liepins (Lat) ONE Pro Cycling 0:03:32
35 Jurgen Roelandts (Bel) BMC Racing Team 0:03:36
36 Eduardo Sepulveda (Arg) Movistar Team
37 Svein Tuft (Can) Mitchelton-Scott
38 Carlos Barbero (Spa) Movistar Team 0:03:42
39 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Direct Energie
40 Robert Power (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott
41 Matthew Holmes (GBr) Madison Genesis 0:03:43
42 Vasil Kiryienka (Blr) Team Sky 0:03:52
43 James Oram (NZl) ONE Pro Cycling 0:04:16
44 Maximiliano Richeze (Arg) Quick-Step Floors 0:04:27
45 Paul Ourselin (Fra) Direct Energie
46 Maarten Wynants (Bel) LottoNL-Jumbo
47 Ryan Christensen (NZl) Canyon-Eisberg 0:04:38
48 Gabriel Cullaigh (GBr) Team Wiggins 0:04:59
49 Andrea Pasqualon (Ita) Wanty-Groupe Gobert
50 Alex Dowsett (GBr) Katusha-Alpecin
51 Stefan Kung SWI BMC Racing Team
52 Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) BMC Racing Team
53 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky
54 Hayden McCormick (NZl) ONE Pro Cycling 0:05:03
55 Matti Breschel (Den) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale 0:05:21
56 Enrico Barbin (Ita) Bardiani CSF 0:05:30
57 Fernando Gaviria (Col) Quick-Step Floors 0:06:31
58 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott 0:06:34
59 Jay Thomson (RSA) Dimension Data 0:06:35
60 Giovanni Carboni (Ita) Bardiani CSF
61 Victor De La Parte (Spa) Movistar Team
62 Nils Eekhoff (Ned) Team Sunweb
63 Miles Scotson (Aus) BMC Racing Team
64 Jaco Venter (RSA) Dimension Data
65 Louis Vervaeke (Bel) Team Sunweb 0:07:31
66 Mark McNally (GBr) Wanty-Groupe Gobert 0:08:47
67 Lukasz Wisniowski (Pol) Team Sky 0:08:54
68 Ben Swift (GBr) Great Britain 0:09:12
69 Fred Wright (GBr) Great Britain
70 Lennard Hofstede (Ned) Team Sunweb
71 Romain Cardis (Fra) Direct Energie 0:09:39
72 Ian Stannard (GBr) Team Sky 0:10:01
73 Nicholas Dlamini (RSA) Dimension Data 0:10:30
74 Mark Downey (Irl) Team Wiggins 0:11:32
75 Jasper De Buyst (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:11:56
76 Alistair Slater (GBr) JLT Condor 0:12:14
77 Rick Zabel (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin 0:12:16
78 Taylor Phinney (USA) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
79 Jens Keukeleire (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:13:44
80 James Fouché (NZL) Team Wiggins 0:13:51
81 Richard Handley (GBr) Madison Genesis 0:13:57
82 Erick Rowsell (GBr) Madison Genesis 0:14:54
83 Matthew Teggart (Irl) Team Wiggins 0:14:58
84 Paolo Simion (Ita) Bardiani CSF 0:15:07
85 Simone Antonini (Ita) Wanty-Groupe Gobert
86 Moreno Hofland (Ned) Lotto Soudal 0:16:14
87 Koen Bouwman (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:16:57
88 Matthew Bostock (GBr) Great Britain 0:17:28
89 Andrea Guardini (Ita) Bardiani CSF 0:17:33
90 Thomas Baylis (GBr) ONE Pro Cycling
91 Jonathan Mould (GBr) JLT Condor 0:17:41
92 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Dimension Data 0:17:44
93 Daniel McLay (GBr) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
94 Andrew Tennant (GBr) Canyon-Eisberg
95 Joe Nally (GBr) Great Britain
96 Thomas Stewart (GBr) JLT Condor
97 Angelo Tulik (Fra) Direct Energie 0:18:14
98 Peter Williams (GBr) ONE Pro Cycling 0:18:22
99 Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:18:28
100 Tony Martin (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin 0:19:55
101 Adrien Petit (Fra) Direct Energie 0:20:10
102 George Pym (GBr) Madison Genesis
103 Phil Bauhaus (Ger) Team Sunweb 0:20:54
104 Roger Kluge (Ger) Mitchelton-Scott 0:21:16
105 Christopher Latham (GBr) ONE Pro Cycling 0:21:19
106 José Neves Fernandes (Por) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale 0:21:42
107 Alex Paton (GBr) Canyon-Eisberg 0:22:19
108 Dexter Gardias (GBr) Canyon-Eisberg 0:22:23
109 Rory Townsend (GBr) Canyon-Eisberg 0:22:27
110 Thomas Moses (GBr) JLT Condor 0:23:08
111 Jonathan McEvoy (GBr) Madison Genesis 0:23:38
112 Iljo Keisse (Bel) Quick-Step Floors 0:28:16
113 Graham Briggs (GBr) JLT Condor 0:28:31
114 Nils Politt (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin 0:29:42
115 Vincenzo Albanese (Ita) Bardiani CSF 0:33:55