Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE) continued his fantastic 2015 season by winning the fourth stage of the Tour de Suisse after an excellent performance by his Orica-GreenEDGE team. After his teammates had worked hard to make the race too tough for the pure sprinters, he came around Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) less than 100m from the line in the tough uphill sprint to take his first win in the Swiss race while Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) defended the overall lead with an advantage of 0.27 second over Sagan.

 

The 2015 season has been fantastic for Michael Matthews who has won stages in every stage race he has done in addition to shining in the classics. However, the Australian was not too confident as he went into the Tour de Suisse which is his final preparation race for the Tour de France.

 

Matthews has just finished a training camp at altitude and his team has already made it clear that he Is very unlikely to complete the race. Hence, the team was uncertain whether he would take his chance in any of the sprint finishes.

 

However, Matthews is apparently feeling better than expected. He was 11th in the prologue and yesterday he made it into a select group of climbers in the very tough third stage. Hence, his team decided to support the Australian fastman fully in today’s stage 4 which ended on a tough finishing circuit with two small climbs and an uphill finishing straight that was tailor-made for him.

 

It was always a question whether the circuit would be too tough for the likes of Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) and Mark Cavendish (Etixx-QuickStep). However, Orica-GreenEDGE didn’t want to sprint against the faster riders and so they rode hard all day to make it as tough as possible. That sent the two fastmen out the back door and left a small group to sprint for the win and in the end Matthews finished it off in perfect fashion by taking the win.

 

Orica-GreenEDGE were still in control with Cameron Meyer and Simon Clarke as they started the final lap of the 28km circuit and at this point Kristoff and Cavendish were among the many riders who had been distanced. With the category 3 climb coming up, there was a huge fight for position to get to the bottom near the front but the Australians managed to hold off their rivals and it was Clarke who made the peloton explode on the steep slopes.

 

Fabian Cancellara (Trek) was one of the first riders to get dropped while his compatriot Jonathan Fumeaux (IAM) attacked. As Clarke swung off, his teammate Daryl Impey took over and he easily brought the Swiss back before he led Esteban Chaves, Michael Albasini and Matthews over the top to take maximum points in the KOM sprint.

 

Matthews clearly asked Impey to slow down a bit and this allowed Clarke to get back on the front. However, Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) saw a chance to use the slower pace to attack and he quickly got a 15-second advantage.

 

Warren Barguil started to chase for Giant-Alpecin as John Degenkolb had made the selection and he started to work with Clarke. Meanwhile, Moreno Moser (Cannondale) went down in a solo crash.

 

As they entered the final 10km, Lutsenko had extended his advantage to 25 seconds and it was now Katusha chasing hard with Sergey Lagutin. He even added another 5 seconds to his lead while Jeremy Roy took over the pace-setting for FDJ.

 

Lutsenko won the final intermediate sprint while Peter Sagan beat Barguil in the sprint for second to pick up two bonus seconds. Matthieu Ladagnous took over for FDJ but it was Danilo Wyss (BMC) who led the peloton onto the late climb with 7km to go.

 

Lutsenko was now starting to fade and he quickly lost ground as Michael Valgren (Tinkoff-Saxo) accelerated hard to make the race hard. He even got a gap as a group with the Dane, Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), Albasini, Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-QuickStep), Sergio Henao (Sky), Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) and Thiabut Pinot (FDJ) suddenly formed.

 

Valgren was asked to slow down and this allowed Marco Marcato (Wanty) to bridge the gap. The Italian went straight on the attack and flew past Lutsenko while the rest of the group was caught.

 

As Lutsenko was also brought back due to Valgren’s hard work, Henao and Jan Bakelants (Ag2r) bridged across to Marcato. The trio crested the summit with a 5-second advantage over the peloton which was led by Pinot.

 

Albasini started to chase for Orica-GreenEDGE and he got some help from Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Impey. Those three riders managed to bring it back together with 2.6km to go and from there Albasini set the pace until he passed the flamme rouge where the road started to rise.

 

Impey rode fast on the steep slopes while the peloton exploded to pieces. Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) hit the deck in a solo crash that meant that only a small group was left to sprint for the win.

 

When Impey swung off, Van Avermaet found himself in the wind too early. Robert Gesink (LottoNL) tried to use the slowdown to launch an attack but just as he was about to pass Van Avermaet, the Belgian launched a long sprint.

 

Sagan and Matthews were in the perfect position in second and third position and it was the Slovakian who kicked hard, easily passing Van Avermaet. Matthews was glued to his wheel and when Sagan started to fade, he easily came around him to take his first ever victory in the Swiss race. Sagan crossed the line in second while Van Avermaet completed the podium.

 

With the second place, Sagan picked up 6 bonus seconds in addition to the two he had taken in the final intermediate sprint. However, Tom Dumoulin had won the second sprint and so those two riders are now tied in the overall classification. Dumoulin has an advantage of 0.27 second from the prologue and so he will wear the yellow jersey again tomorrow.

 

However, it will be hard for the Dutchman to defend his lead. Stage 5 is the queen stage and includes a mountaintop finish on the brutally steep Rettenbachferner. After a flat start, the riders will tackle the HC climb Bielerhöhe at the midpoint before another flat section leads to the bottom of the final ascent which has an average gradient of no less than 10.7%.

 

A lumpy stage

After two tough days of climbing, the terrain got a bit flatter in stage 4 which brought the riders over 193.2km from Flims to Schwarzenbach. After a flat start, the riders tackled a category 2 climb which summited after 68.2km of racing. From there, the peloton descended to the finishing circuit which included a category 4 climb, a small non-categorized ascent and an uphill finishing straight with an average gradient of 3.3%. The riders would almost do a full lap before the got to the finish line for the first time and then they would end the stage by doing two laps of the circuit.

 

Again the forecasted rain was absent when the riders gathered for the start in Flims. One rider was absent as Philippe Gilbert (BMC) had been diagnosed with a fractured tibia related to his crash at the Fleche Wallonne and decided to head home to focus on his recovery.

 

The break is formed

With most expecting the stage to be fairly controlled by the sprint teams, it was no surprise that the breakaway was formed relatively early. Davide Malacarne (Astana) and Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) escaped after a few kilometres of racing and they were quickly joined Alex Howes (Cannondale-Garmin), Stijn Devolder (Trek) and Frederik Backaert (Wanty).

 

The peloton was pleased with the composition of the break and so allowed them to build an advantage. After 12km of racing, the gap was 58 seconds and at the 30km mark it had gone out to 4 minutes.

 

The peloton speeds up

The chase now got organized and 6km later the peloton had reduced their deficit to 3.45. A little later, they started to climb the category 2 Wildhaus climb. Here a few teams were keen on making the going tough for some of the sprinters and so the gap came down rapidly. When De Gendt led Malacarne, Backaert, Devolder and Howes over the top, it was only 2.50.

 

The peloton continued its fast chasing and had brought the gap down to 2.05 at the 83km mark. As they passed through the feed zone, it had even dropped to 1.50.

 

The gap comes down

The peloton finally slowed down a bit and this gave the escapees a bit more room. After 105km of racing, the gap had gone out to 2.20 and when De Gendt crested the summit of the category 4 climb in Kirchberg for the first time to take maximum points, it was 2.05. Malacarne, Devolder and Backaert were next across the line.

 

It was Orica-GreenEDGE doing the damage with Svein Tuft and Mathew Hayman and those two riders accelerated again. As Howes led Devolder and De Gendt across the line in the first intermediate sprint, the gap was only 40 seconds.

 

The break is caught

Hayman swung off and left it to Tuft to set the pace until they hit the bottom of the climb. Here Meyer and Clarke took over and they brought Devolder, De Gendt and Malacarne back on the lower slopes after Howes and Backaert have made a last desperate attack.

 

Halfway up the climb those two riders were also caught but Howes tried again. He reopened his advantage but was unable to stay away. Instead, De Gendt attacked again and he was the first rider at the summit, followed by Meyer, Clarke and Impey.

 

Bonus seconds for Dumoulin

The climb had taken its toll and Arnaud Demare (FDJ), Cavendish and Kristoff were among the many riders to have been dropped. They had no chance to rejoin the peloton as Meyer and Clarke continued their fast pace, bringing De Gendt back in the process.

 

As they approached the second intermediate sprint, there was a huge fight for position and it was Dumoulin who sprinted ahead to beat Matti Breschel (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Geraint Thomas (Sky). Meyer and Clarke got back to work and moments later they crossed the finish line to set the scene for the exciting final lap.