Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) put himself in the perfect position to win the Tour of Britain overall when he won today’s hilly stage 4 of the race. Having joined forces with Dylan Teuns (BMC), Nicolas Roche (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Ion Izagirre (Movistar) after a late climb, he managed to catch escapees Albert Timmer (Giant-Shimano) and Jack Bauer (Garmin-Sharp) just 50m from the line and narrowly passed the Dutchman to take his first win in the second part of the season and take the overall lead.

Yesterday Michal Kwiatkowski proved that he is back in form after the Tour de France when he finished second in the queen stage of the Tour of Britain. Today he solidified his position as the favourite to win the race when he won the hilly stage 4 after a dramatic finale.

A short, steep climb just 2km from the line was the perfect launch pad for Kwiatkowski who attacked with Dylan Teuns and Ion Izagirre to take off in pursuit of Albert Timmer – the lone survivor from an early escapee – and Jack Bauer who had bridged the gap on the climb.

Nicolas Roche had attacked a little earlier and was in between those two groups but the Irishman was brought back inside the final 500m. While race leader Edoardo Zardini (Bardiani) and Sky were desperately trying to limit their losses, Kwiatkowski made his move with a few hundred metres to go and he managed to pass Timmer just 50m from the line. The Giant-Shimano rider held on to take second while Teuns passed Bauer to complete the podium.

After the queen stage, the riders tackled another very hilly stage on day four of the British tour. It brought them over 184.6km from Worcester to Bristol and was always up or down. In the early part of the stage, the riders tackled a category 2 and category 3 climb and several uncategorized ascents before they descended to a flat run-in to the finale. Here they tackled a short 800m category 2 climb which summited just 2km from the line and from there it was slight uphill to the finish.

All 117 remaining riders took the start under a sunny sky and like yesterday Alex Dowsett (Movistar) was keen on getting the action started. The Brit launched a solo attack and after a little while, he was joined by Lasse Norman (Garmin), Peter Velits (BMC) and Albert Timmer (Giant-Shimano).

Kristian House (Rapha), Michael Northey (Madison), Sam Harrison (NFTO), Mark Christian (Raleigh) and Sebastian Lander (BMC) gave chase and as they went up the first climb, Christian and House made the junction. At the top, Timmer beat Dowsett, Christian, Velits, Norman and House in the battle for the KOM points.

The front group was now 2.45 ahead of the peloton and later Lander, Harrison and Northey also made it across. While Bardiani and Tinkoff set a steady pace in the peloton, the gap started to grow and at one point, it reached 5.45.

Sky joined Tinkoff on the front and Bernhard Eisel and Manuele Boaro started to take back some time. Meanwhile, Dowsett and Lander attacked from the break as they approached the first sprint where Dowsett was first, Lander second and House third.

In the second sprint, Lander got his revenge as he beat Dowsett and Norman in the battle for the points. The group had now come back together and approached the second climb.

Here Lander took maximum points as he led House, Harrison, Timmer and Dowsett across the line. The peloton had now reduced their deficit to 4.25.

While Michael Cumings (Rapha) and Brian Bulgac (Giant) abandoned the race, Tinkoff were now the only team chasing, with Boaro and Rory Sutherland significantly upping the pace.  At the 80km mark, they had brought the gap down to 4.05 and this was the signal for OPQS to kick into action.

The Belgian team put Julien Vermote on the front and he started to trade pulls with Boaro. Moments later, they gathered their troops in a long line on the front and Vermote and Niki Terpstra now started to ride really hard.

With 75km to go, the gap was 3.20 and 10km further up the road, it was only 2.24. At this point, Dowsett suffered an untimely puncture and when he was back on his bike, he had already lost a minute.

While the Brit fought hard to rejoin his former companions, OPQS brought the gap down to less than 2 minutes before they stepped off the gap. Dowsett realized that he wouldn’t rejoin the group and decided to wait for the peloton.

When the gap had reached 2.15, Tinkoff again started to chase with Boaro but when he was joined by Vermote, he again stopped his work. While Vermote and Terpstra set a steady pace, the gap started to grow and with 30km to go, the gap was 3 minutes.

Lander won the final intermediate sprint uncontested to solidify his grip on the sprints jersey. The escapees now realized that they had a chance and were working excellently together in a quest to keep the peloton at bay.

With 25km to go, IAM joined OPQS on the front and they started to take back some time. With Vermote, Terpstra, Jerome Pineau and Matthias Brändle (both IAM) as the driving forces, the balance started to tip into the peloton’s favour.

With 20km to go, the gap was 2.20 and 5km further down the road, the advantage was 1.30. This was the signal for Norman to reach and with 12km to go, the Dane launched a strong attack.

Velits was the first to join the Garmin rider and later Timmer also made the junction. With 8km to go the, trio were 1.10 ahead while the rest of the group was caught.

Pablo Lastras (Movistar) attacked from the peloton but as Belkin had now taken control with Rick Flens, the veteran was brought back. Terpstra took a final turn before Sky took over with Bernhard Eisel,

Brändle again hit the front and joined forces with OPQS to bring the gap down to 30 seconds as the peloton hit the final climb. Heinrich Haussler led the bunch onto the slopes and an MTN-Qhubeka rider and Bauer launched an immediate attack.

Bauer dropped his companion and approached the front group from which Timmer attacked. While Norman cracked immediately, Velits tried to stay with the Dutchman but both were passed by a s trong Bauer.

The Kiwi caught Timmer at the top and went straight to the front to set a hard pace. Meanwhile, Roche had attacked from the peloton and he was approaching the front duo.

Like yesterday, however, the Irishman was fading and instead it was the trio of Kwiatkowski, Izagirre and Teuns that gained ground. They caught Roche with a few hundred metres to go.

Timmer launched a long sprint off Bauer’s wheel but he had no chance against a powerful Kwiatkowski. The Pole accelerated and just metres before the line, he passed the Dutchman to take the win.

As Zardini finished with the peloton 6 seconds later, Kwiatkowski took the leader’s jersey and now goes into stage 3 with a 3-second advantage over the Italian. It’s another hilly affair with a category 2 and a category 1 climb in the half before the riders descend to the bottom of the category 2 Stoke Hill. The short climb summits just 2km from the finish and then it’s downhill all the way to the line.