After winning both the time trial and the overall in last week's Etoile de Besseges, Tobias Ludvigsson (Giant-Shumano) lined up at today's Tour Mediteraneen time trial with great ambitions but a disastrous puncture ruined his race. Despite riding the final 7km on a road bike and have to stop for a bike change, the Swede finished 6th and was left wondering what might have been.

Tobias Ludvigsson finished the stage 4 time trial of the Tour Méditerranéen in sixth but it could have been a lot better had he not punctured and changed bikes.

He had to take drastic action to avoid crashing on a descent in the second half of the race. He went through the first time check second fastest and looked to challenge for the win but a puncture from his near miss and a subsequent bike change saw him lose vital seconds.

Despite riding the last 7km on his road bike, Ludvigsson finished in sixth just 35 seconds behind stage winner Stephen Cummings (BMC).

Georg Preidler rode a strong race to finish in 20th and Dries Devenyns made it three Team Giant-Shimano riders in the top 30. John Degenkolb finished in 41st position and passes the leader’s jersey to Cummings.

“I’m really disappointed because I felt great, the bike felt super fast and I was in a really good rhythm,” said Tobias after the stage.

“I went a bit too fast round one of the corners on the descent but hit something. I managed to stay up but my wheel was flat immediately. It’s hard to get back into it after a bike change, but that’s racing. I still have to go for the overall tomorrow though so it’s not over yet.”

"I lost a lot of time due to the incident," he added to Directvelo. "It's hard to say how much but because of the near-miss and the bike change, I probably lost about twenty seconds. The hardest part if the mental aspect. It is not easy to continue to push the pedals hard after a problem like this. I still continued to fight until the end and finally, I'm not so unhappy with my result, given what happened. I didn't a lot of time.

Tomorrow's stage ends with a long climb (Mont Faron, Ed)," he said about tomorrow's queen stage. "I'll try to stay with the best as long as possible. This is my only chance to get an GC result. In the team, we can also play the card of Warren Barguil who is a good climber. If Warren needs my help, I will also be there for him in the final. "
 

“That was a real shame because I really think that Tobias could have won that,” said coach Marc Reef. “He was going really fast but nearly lost on one of the corners and hit something.

“He only lost 30 seconds between the bike change with 7km to go and the finish, and that was riding a road bike. That shows how strong he was. It is great to see that all the hard work put in by both Tobias and the team’s coaches and experts over the winter is paying off.”