With a break up the road, Bradley Wiggins had a mostly easy day in the saddle in yesterday's stage of the Tour of California but the day ended better than he had expected. When a split occurred in the finale, he gained four second on key rival Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp).

Sir Bradley Wiggins comfortably retained his lead at the Tour of California as the breakaway evaded the peloton on stage four.

Despite the heat the 165.1-kilometre test proved to be relatively straightforward for Wiggins who sprinted hard to carve out four additional seconds at the line, pushing his advantage out to 28 seconds over Rohan Dennis at the race’s half-way point.

The yellow jersey looked comfortable on the Pacific coast surrounded by Team Sky team-mates at the head of affairs, while a miscalculation from the sprinter’s teams produced a surprise winner.

The day’s six-man breakaway rode a shrewd race to lull the peloton into a false sense of security and it was Will Routley (Kelly Benefit Strategies) who bested his rivals in a sprint into Cambria.

Greg Daniel (Bissell) and Kevin De Mesmaeker (Novo Nordisk) rounded out a surprise podium, while pre-stage favourite Mark Cavendish had to be content with seventh place, leading the pack across the line 1:17 back.

The Manxman’s Omega Pharma – Quick-Step team were among those pushing hard in the closing stages as a tense chase ensued, yet the peloton would ultimately run out of road. Wiggins made every metre count and his vigilance saw him eke out a handful of valuable seconds on Dennis (Garmin-Sharp).

“The nearest guy in the breakaway was 15 minutes [down on GC], so we had a pretty easy day,” said Wiggins. “We assisted in the chase out of respect for the jersey more than anything. With that tailwind in the run-in, it was always going to be difficult to bring back three minutes at 25 kilometers to go. The speeds were quite high during the run-in.”