CULT Energy Pro Cycling’s Christian Mager spent the day in the breakaway in today’s 166 kilometer fourth and final stage of Route du Sud from Revel to Gaillac which was concluded in a bunch sprint. Michael Carbel made his way to the front after two punctures in the high-pace finale.

Christian Mager took part in today's break with 8 other riders while being chased by the field where Tinkoff-Saxo took charge of the pace-making. However, as the stage entered the finale, Team Canondale took over the responsibility. With ten kilometers to go, the gap was still one minute and nothing was settled but the gap was coming down fast in the final kilometers and going under the five kilometer banner, the breakaway riders started attacking each other. Soon after, they were all caught.

From then on, it was all about the sprinters and CULT Energy Pro Cycling’s Michael Carbel was in a favorable position passing the red kite but in the final left corner, he lost a few positions in the hectic battle and finished outside the top-10.

Bryan Coquard (Europcar) won the stage while Tinkoff-Saxo’s Alberto Contador took the overall win.

"It was a tough stage concluding a demanding race so everyone seemed tired. I enjoyed the support from my teammates in the finale starting 35 kilometers from the finish where I had a puncture. Ten kilometers later, I had another one. Obviously these incidents stole most of my energy and I spent the next 15 kilometers slowly but surely navigating my way back to the front. In the closing kilometers, I was in a very good position but was out of strength and had to settle for nothing, " says Carbel and adds: "Now my focus is on next week's Danish national championships."

CULT Energy Pro Cycling DS Luke Roberts comments:

"Everyone was tired and sore after a few days of hard racing and Mads Pedersen had to withdraw from the stage paying the price of his breakaway activities in the last couple of days. Surprisingly to everyone including Christian, he spent the day in break after having trouble simply getting out of bed this morning due to fatigue. As everyone could see, he didn't have enough power to take part of the pulling in the break and could hardly follow the pace. But the fighting spirit and killer instinct is always there. Overall, I think we can be satisfied with our efforts here. Not only did we take part of the action up front, we came really close of going all the way a few times with different riders. Now, everyone deserves a few days of recovery before the nationals coming up."