Alexander Kristoff went into today's fourt stage of the Tour de Suisse with plenty of confidence and his Katusha team helped bringing back the early break. In the sprint, however, he got boxed in and had to settle for fifth.

It was a true sprint opportunity for today’s stage 4 in the 2014 Tour de Suisse and all of the peloton’s fast men came to race in the final in Ossingen, including Team Katusha’s Alexander Kristoff. The Norwegian sprinter put up a big effort, taking fifth on the stage.

“I felt quite good today,” said Alexander Kristoff. “Aleksandr Porsev put me in a perfect position but I lost the wheel a little bit in the corner and was then behind Sacha Modolo.

"In the sprint I felt I had more to give but I was a bit boxed in back in the second line. I had nowhere to go so my choice was to brake and go around or wait for it to open up. I waited but it never opened so that was a pity. I was fifth and of course aiming higher, but it’s not bad.

"Tomorrow is another day. The entire team was great and helped me to save energy. It was a good job.”

With many right and left turns coming into the finish, as well as plenty of road furniture to avoid, it was pure chaos as the pace ramped high with Mark Cavendish coming up the middle of the course to take the win by more than a bike length to second place Juan Jose Lobato (Movistar). Third place went to Peter Sagan of Cannondale.

The 160 km lumpy course began in Heiden and included two local laps of 28 km around Ossingen with each loop including a category-four climb. Two riders, Laurens De Breese (Wanty) and Daniel Teklehaimanot (MTN) went clear early but were brought back with just over 10 km to go. Team Katusha aided in the chase, working to set up the sprint for Kristoff.

The top of the general classification remained the same with Tony Martin (Omega Pharma – Quick-Step) still in the lead by six-seconds to Tom Dumoulin and 10-seconds to Peter Sagan. Sergei Chernetckii is 24th.

The 2014 Tour de Suisse reaches the halfway point with Wednesday’s 184 km stage beginning in 5 Ossingen and ending in Büren A.D. Aare. There are four rated climbs on course.