Australia’s Michael Matthews outsprinted Peter Sagan to take victory in the fourth stage of the Tour de Suisse on Tuesday, while Tom Dumoulin maintained his overall lead.
In a stage that was always likely to end in a bunch sprint after 193km from Flims to Schwarzenbach, Orica-GreenEdge’s Matthews edged out stage 3 winner Sagan and Belgium’s Greg van Avermaet.
Sagan came into the sprint as the favorite with 10 Swiss stage successes to his name, but Matthews hunted him down in the final few meters to take his first victory at the event.
Photo: EPA
“It was always going to be difficult,” Matthews said. “The way [Sagan] sprinted yesterday was really strong. I knew that I just had to glue myself to his wheel and then see what I had left.”
Dutchman Dumoulin leads Sagan — who took a time bonus on the line — by just a single second in the overall standings, with Spaniard Daniel Moreno third eight seconds back.
However, the general classification was expected to be turned on its head after yesterday’s torturous 237km mountainous stage, during which the overall contenders were likely to come to the fore.
Frenchman Thibaut Pinot, third at last year’s Tour de France, was expecting to shine with less than three weeks to go before La Grand Boucle begins.
He was ideally placed at fourth overall, 15 seconds back from Dumoulin, and showed last month that he has good climbing legs, as he won a mountainous stage on the Tour de Romandie.
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