Friday 24 January 2014 at 09h15

A real sprint finish was expected for this 4th stage and that was indeed what we saw today in Victor Harbor. André Greipel finally took his victory while the German rider rarely had to wait until the 4th stage to get on the podium in previous editions!

The summary of the 4th stage of the Tour Down Under 2014: Unley > Victor Harbor

Between Unley and Victor Harbor, the 4th stage of the Tour Down Under 2014 presented a profile with only one referenced climb for the King of the Mountains classification and with a somewhat downhill finish. Towards the port of Victor Harbor the peloton risked however to explode due to the lateral wind.

As usual since the start of this Tour Down Under, the stage started with several breakaway attempts. We had to wait until after the first intermediate sprint however, after about 35 kilometers, to see a group really get away. In this group we found Michael Andersen (Tinkoff-Saxo), Axel Domont (AG2R La Mondiale), Yukiya Arashiro (Team Europcar), Cameron Wurf (Cannondale) and Wesley Sulzberger (Drapac Professional Cycling), while Björn Thurau (Team Europcar) tried to join them but finally abandoned his efforts.

Apparently the 5 leading riders didn't go on together that well and despite their quite comfortable gap (above 5 minutes), Axel Domont and Cameron Wurf decided to go on without the others. We're then at less than 95 kilometers from the finish and their gap on the peloton is 5'15" at that point and the three other riders of the day's breakaway are taken back by the peloton.

When they arrive on top of the climb in Myponga, where Axel Domont takes the points, the leading duo's gap has already been reduced to 2'50" and from there it starts to drop quickly. At about 40 kilometers from the finish, the adventure ends for the leading duo. In the mean time, Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE), the main competitor for Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) in the general classification, took the bonus seconds in the two intermediate sprints: by winning the first one in Echunga at the start of the race and by taking the second position behind Nathan Haas (Garmin-Sharp) in the second sprint in Yankalilla. Thanks to this operation he took back some precious seconds on his compatriote and approached to 7 seconds from Evans.

In the peloton there had already been a split-up and the second group rapidly got far behind the leading group. At about ten kilometers from the finish, about 70 riders were at over 7 minutes behind the first peloton! In these 10 last kilometers the attacks follow one after another but without success.

It was thus in a sprint that the victory of this 4th stage was decided and in this sprint André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol), willing to get his revenge after his second place in the People's Choice Classic and in the first stage, turned out to be the fastest!

The result of the 4th stage of the Tour Down Under 2014

Here's the top 10 of this 4th stage:

1/ André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) - 3h33'07"
2/ Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto-Belisol)
3/ Elia Viviani (Cannondale)
4/ Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE)
5/ Nathan Haas (Garmin-Sharp)
6/ Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEDGE)
7/ Maxime Bouet (AG2R La Mondiale)
8/ Nikolay Trusov (Tinkoff-Saxo)
9/ Anthony Roux (FDJ.fr)
10/ Francesco Gavazzi (Astana)

The video of the 4th stage of the Tour Down Under 2014

Hereunder you can watch the images of the last kilometer of this 4th stage of the Tour Down Under 2014 with André Greipel's victory and his comments after the race.


source photo illustration of the article: © John Veage - Santos Tour Down Under

door Thomas Vergouwen
Vond u dit artikel interessant? Laat het uw vrienden op Facebook weten door op de buttons hieronder te klikken!

no comments yet | 7161 views

this publication is published in: Tour Down Under | Tour Down Under 2014