Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) got an important confidence boost for the Tour de France when he won today’s first sprint stage of the Tour de Suisse. After his team had controlled the race all day, he timed his sprint into the headwind perfectly and comfortably held off a fast-finishing Juan Jose Lobato (Movistar) and Peter Sagan (Cannondale) to take the win while his teammate Tony Martin finished safely within the bunch to defend his leader’s jersey.

For Mark Cavendish, the Tour de Suisse is an extremely important race as it represents the dress rehearsal for him and his sprint team in view of the upcoming Tour de France. With Alessandro Petacchi being the notable exception, he is surrounded by his entire support crew in the Swiss race and will use the two only sprint stages in the race to fine-tune the automatisms.

Today he got it all off to a perfect start when he won the fourth stage which was the first for the sprinters. In a very confusing sprint, the Brit stayed calm after being brought into a good position by his team and timed his sprint perfectly.

At one point, it seemed that he was out of the battle when his Omega Pharma-Quick Step team found itself far back at a point when Tinkoff-Saxo were stringing things out for Matti Breschel. With a fierce headwind, however, it was way too early to be on the front and both Cavendish and Giant-Shimano seemed to have timed things perfectly when they moved up in the finale.

In the confusing sprint, however, none of the two major trains was very well-organized and in the final Cavendish had lost the wheel of his lead-out man Mark Renshaw. Dane Michael Mørkøv was behind the Australian, with Cavendish in the next position.

Renshaw was on the wheel of Koen De Kort who thought that everything was working perfectly for his Giant- Shimano team when he hit the front inside the final kilometer. When he swung off, however, it was Renshaw and not lead sprinter John Degenkolb who took ever, the German having got lost in the messy finale.

Renshaw made his lead-out but was passed by both Peter Sagan and Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) who launched their sprint pretty early. Knowing that the headwind would make things difficult, Cavendish hesitated for a moment before going full gas.

When he finally dropped the hammer, however, the outcome was never in doubt and he easily passed his two rivals to open a big gap and win the stage by more than a bike length. Behind, Juan Jose Lobato came very fast from a poor position to take second while Sagan and Modolo had to settle for third and fourth respectively.

Race leader Tony Martin had an easy day in the saddle and did not get involved in the lead-out duties for Cavendish. He safely defended his 6-second lead over Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano) but saw Sagan in third reduce his deficit to just 10 seconds due to a split in the finale.

Cavendish gets a chance to make it two in a row in tomorrow’s fifth stage which should be another one for the sprinters. Four smaller climbs will challenge the riders along the mostly flat stage but should do nothing to prevent another bunch sprint in Switzerland.

One for the sprinters

After the first three days had been all about surviving, the sprinters were expected to get into action in today’s fourth stage of the Tour de Suisse.  The 160.4km course brought the riders from Heiden to Ossingen and was mostly flat. The stage ended with two laps of a 28km finishing circuit which included a small category 4 climb. From the top, 15.2km remained and as they were almost completely flat, a bunch sprint was expected.

For the second day in a row, the riders took the start under beautiful sunny conditions and one rider was especially happy when he signed on this morning. After his wife had been hospitalized due to complications, Mathias Frank had become a father overnight and he can now fully concentrate on his home tour.

An early break

All riders that finished yesterday’s stage took the start but unfortunately Daniele Ratto (Cannondale) didn’t even make it out of the neutral zone before he had to abandon. Together with 3-4 riders, he hit the deck in the neutral zone and was brought to hospital to get his injuries checked.

With the stage being an obvious affair for the sprinters, it was no surprise that there was no big fight to be part of the early action. Almost straight from the gun, Daniel Teklehaimanot (MTN-Qhubeka) and Laurens De Vreese (Wanty) attacked and the pair were given carte blanche to build up a gap.

A small gap

At the 26km mark, they were 3.08 ahead but the sprinters were in no mood to let this opportunity slip away. The gap reached a maximum of 3.57 after 57km of racing but the peloton did not allow them to get much leeway and they kept it between the 3- and 4-minute marks for most of the day. Unfortunately, Jelle Vanendert (Lotto Belisol) was involved in an earlier crash and was forced to abandon the race.

68km from the finish, the gap was down to 2.30 as Niki Terpstra and Martin Velits were doing the pace-setting for OPQS. Moments later, Giant-Shimano showed their intentions and asked young Lawson Craddock to contribute to the pace-setting.

Katusha hit the front

Passing through the feed zone, the gap went up to 3 minutes but as the peloton went back to work, it again started to come down. As the escapees started the first lap of the circuit, they were only 2.30 ahead and now Aliaksandr Kuschynski was also contributing for Katusha.

With 44km to go, the escapees hit the climb for the first time with a 1.40 advantage. De Vreese led Teklehaimanot over the top while KOM leader Bjorn Thurau (Europcar) attacked from the peloton to pick up the final point before dropping back to the bunch.

Wiggins goes down

The peloton took it easy on the ascent and allowed the gap to grow a bit before they went back to work. Terpstra now took a short breather, leaving it to Kuschynski, Craddock and Velits to do the work.

As the riders crossed the line to start the final lap, Bradley Wiggins (Sky) and Jaroslaw Marycz (CCC) went down on the finishing straight. Both got back on their bike but the 2012 Tour champion was clearly in a lot of pain.

De Vreese keeps the break alive

The battle for position had now intensified and with 25km to go, the escapees were only 1 minute ahead. 5km further up the road, Velits and Craddock swung off and after Matteo Trentin had taken a short turn for OPQS, Terpstra went back to work with Kuschynski.

The Belarusian stopped his work moments later, leaving it all to Terpstra. At the bottom of the climb, they had almost caught the break but as De Vreese gave it one final go, the duo managed to stay clear to the top where Teklehaimanot sprinted ahead to take the points.

Boaro impressive

Terpstra led the peloton over the summit while De Vreese attacked on the descent. Teklehaimanot rejoined after a short chase but with 10km to go, Terpstra had brought it back together.

BMC hit the front with 8km to go when Marcus Burghardt took a big turn but it was Tinkoff-Saxo who dominated the finale. With 5 teammates on his wheel, Manuele Boaro hit the front 7km from the line and led the peloton all the way to the 3km to go mark, neutralizing a short-lived attack from Vladimir Isaychev in the process.

Giant in control

With 3km to go, Roman Kreuziger took over before Fabian Cancellara hit the front to position Danny Van Poppel. When he swung off, Giant took control with 6 riders and they seemed to have everything lined out for Degenkolb.

However, they were passed by Tom Boonen who led the peloton to the flamme rouge but the classics star had lost his teammates. When he swung off, it was again Giant on the front and Koen De Kort thought that he had made the perfect lead-out when he left the front inside the final 500m. Instead of seeing Degenkolb pass him, however, it was Renshaw who delivered Cavendish to the win.