When a large group went away in the final, an attentive Marco Haller made sure he was among 18 that established a gap before the finish in Sandnes. His efforts saw the Austrian rider sprint in for fifth place and move into second overall on the general classification.

"Today it felt like everybody was against us, but we tried to stay focused for the final circuit. At the end there was so much chaos and a big 18-rider break got away and I managed to go with it. There were several strong riders, but with me up there the team did not have to work. It was a tricky situation. Our director decided to place his bet on me, but unfortunately that didn’t work out quite like we had hoped. I took a minor gap at the end but it wasn’t enough to move me into the yellow jersey. Tomorrow we will try to make this right. How do we do that? Bonus seconds! Stage win! It looks like tomorrow I have to deliver," said Marco Haller.

The 178 km stage 4 began in Stavanger and ended with a reduced sprint in Sandnes. Coming to the line with one second was Søren Kragh Andersen (Team Trefor - Blue Water) just ahead of Amets Txurruka (Caja Rual). Andersen teammate Michael Olsson was third at 4-seconds with Haller on the same time in fifth. The win put Andersen in the overall lead by 8-seconds to Haller.

"We knew the breakaway of 18 riders was strong. But we had already worked so much in the first 3 days of the race. Kristoff was constantly under attack, right from kilometer zero. So we had to send Marco out and in the end he just missed a few seconds. That’s sport but he can still win this race. He did a great job for the team and in the last few days he’s shown how strong he is, so with the bonus seconds available tomorrow, we will fight for it," said team director Torsten Schmidt.

Alexander Kristoff leads the points competition and wears the blue jersey.

The final stage on Sunday begins in Hinna Park and ends in Stavanger at 186 km.