John Degenkolb and Tom Dumoulin sprinted to fourth and eleventh on stage 4 in the Swiss stage race. By less than a second, Dumoulin holds his leading position in the GC, as Michael Matthews took the stage win.

Stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse took the riders from Flims to Schwarzenbach. Upfront, the sprinters marked the stage of 193km, but with the 2nd category climb of the Wildhaus after 60km and three 3rd category- climbs towards the finale, a difficult course had to be completed first.

Five riders made the early break, as Belgian Thomas de Gendt (Lotto – Soudal) was the last one to be caught back by the bunch at 40km from the finish. After a difficult finale, a decimated bunch headed towards Schwarzenbach for a sprint on the uphill finishing straight.

In the sprint John Degenkolb took 4th, as Michael Matthews (Orica GreenEDGE) won the fourth stage at the Tour de Suisse. Dumoulin came in at 11th and remains the overall leader once again. Warren Barguil came in at 14th today.

After the stage, coach Addy Engels explained: “It was again a good day for us. We controlled the break in the beginning of the stage and left the chase work up to Tinkoff – Saxo and Orica GreenEDGE.

“In the finale, John had a little too less support, as Tom focused on his own sprint to not lose unnecessary seconds. Keeping the jersey wasn’t the main target today but we are happy to have it for at least another day. We have to estimate our GC chances after the very difficult stage of tomorrow.”

Dumoulin added: “It was a difficult day with a hard finale. By setting a high pace at the local circuit, Orica GreenEDGE and Tinkoff – Saxo tried to drop the sprinters. Fortunately, Warren was there to keep John and me in the front, which was really nice.

“During the final kilometers, there was a risk of splits in the bunch so we were unable to do a proper sprint preparation for John unfortunately, as I had to fight for my own position. It turned out to be the right decision because I only just kept my lead.”