One day after his fantastic stage win in the Tour des Fjords, Magnus Cort Nielsen (Cult) did almost equally well when he defended his overall lead by finishing second in the fourth stage. Due to bonus seconds, however, Alexander Kristoff reduced his deficit and the young Dane regards it as 50-50 whether he will go on to win the race overall.

After his two stage wins in last year's Tour of Denmark, Magnus Cort is again mixing it up with the WorldTour stars in this week's Tour des Fjords. After winning yesterday's third stage of the race, he finished second behind Alexander Kristoff in a very hectic and aggressive fourth stage.

Due to bonus seconds, however, the young Dane saw his advantage over Kristoff being reduced from 13 to 9 seconds and as there are 10 seconds on offer in tomorrow's final stage, he knows that there is a big risk that he will lose his lead on the final day.

"Unfortunately, I lost a bit of time to Kristoff as he got more bonus seconds than I did, but in general it was a good day, better than I expected," he said. "The guys were fantastic today, it was simply incredible. Moberg and Mortensen worked for a long time until Lasse [Bøchman] took over and finally Troels [Vinther] was great. He really helped me a lot when I needed it the most.

"I think it is 50-50 whether I will win the overall or not. Kristoff will pass me by virtue of bonus seconds if he wins the stage and I finish outside the top 3. He is definitely the fastest rider in the race so I am prepared for it to happen. The time gaps are small and there are also bonus seconds in the intermediate sprints.

"But the team and I will do everything possible to keep the jersey. I have a chance to win and I will do my best to do so. We are up against some very strong teams that know how to put a continental team under pressure. I expect that Katusha will keep it together for a bunch sprint and then it will decide everything.

"It was a very slow sprint as none of the riders had a team to lead them out. I was on Kristoff's wheel and we launched the sprint. We fought a bit but it was a difficult sprint, partly because there was a bend, partly because there were cobbles. Unfortunately, he was the strongest. I was not far behind so it's a shame as it would have made a big difference if I had passed him.

"I didn't respond to all attacks but hid myself a bit on the final laps which was always the plan. I was the only one from the team as my teammates had worked all day but if I had to respond to all attacks or close the gaps myself, I would have exploded. I had to make a gamble and hope that things were kept together which was the case."