"Even after they caught me, I never gave up. This is my first race in two months after my surgery, and I'm ready to show that I am recovered.

Those were the words of Astana's Alexey Lutsenko after stage four at the Tour de Suisse. Lutsenko attacked an elite leading group of riders with 20km to the finish and qickly built a 30-second advantage over the chasers on a hilly and technical finishing circuit in central Switzerland.

Davide Malacarne escaped into the early breakaway and stayed at the front of the race into the first circuit around Schwarzenbach, allowing his teammates to ride quietly in the peloton and conserve their energy for the final part of the race. With teammate Jakob Fuglsang safely protected at the front of the peloton, Lutsenko stayed in front for 14km and then quickly rejoined the leaders when the group caught up to him.

Fuglsang and Lutsenko both finished in the same time as stage winner Michael Matthews of Australia. Fuglsang remains 17 seconds behind race leader Tom Dumoulins of the Netherlands.

Stage five on Wednesday is a long and difficult 235km race into neighboring Austria, with two categorized climbs, including a mountain summit finish in Sölden at the Rettensbachgletscher. It is expected that the General Classification will change dramatically on Wednesday -