Peter Kennaugh defended his overall lead in today's stage of the Tour of Austria but the Brit and his Sky team were put under pressure. With Yoann Bagot in a strong breakaway, the team had to chase all day to reduce their losses to the French climber.

Peter Kennaugh held onto the yellow jersey for a fourth successive day on stage five of the Tour of Austria as the breakaway prevailed in St. Johann.

Kennaugh was kept safe throughout the short but mountainous 146.4km slog from Matrei, and the 25 year old stayed calm as his team-mates controlled the pace in the tricky weather conditions.

The Manxman rolled home safely in seventh place to keep hold of his 29-second advantage as Jesse Sergent (Trek Factory Racing) attacked out of the breakaway in the closing kilometres to claim his first win of the season.

Speaking after the stage Sports Director Dan Frost described another tough day of racing which the team controlled admirably.

He said: “It was a really tough stage today with the Glocknerköni climb in the middle, and we had a bit of rain and snow there as the riders went over the top. The visibility was low and you couldn’t see very far ahead of you because there was a lot of fog.”

Despite the weather, the team battled against the elements and Frost was pleased with the effort.

He added: “Our guys were really keen on doing the job for Pete and we still had a couple of guys pulling for him in the last couple of kilometres. We controlled the pace from 60km out and Christian [Knees], Sebastian [Henao] and Ian [Boswell] were still with Pete at the end.

“Josh [Edmondson] and Kosta [Siutsou] did some strong work over the climbs, but they had to let the leaders go on the tricky descent.”

“The team are supporting Pete 100% and that’s what counts here. We really need to stick together and do the maximum for the leader, and if we do that, we're in a great position."

Looking ahead to Friday, Frost was hoping for better weather as the peloton returns to the mountains.

“Tomorrow we have maybe even harder stage than today, there is 3,500 metres of climbing, so it’s going to be a tough one with a first-category summit finish, but hopefully the weather will be better."