Russian rider of Katusha Team Mikhail Ignatiev finished 2nd today in the 4th stage of Tour du Poitou-Charentes held in France.

Fourth stage of the race, an individual time trial for 22,8 km from Charroux to Civray, was won Thomas Voeckler from Europcar. Mikhail Ignatiev drove a very good race, but ended up 23 seconds behind Voeckler and finished second. Gustav Larsson from IAM Cycling finished third 26 seconds behind. Another Katusha rider Simon Spilak finished 8th with 36 seconds behind Voeckler.

Mikhail Ignatiev is very happy about the way the time trial ended.

“I am very happy about today’s race. I think I can be proud with the result, because I was better than many big time trial specialists. Yes, it would be better to win the race, but Voeckler was the strongest today. Tomorrow we will have the final stage, so we will try to do something,” Mikhail Ignatiev said to the Katusha webpage.

Sports Director Valerio Piva thinks his team did a great job today by taking the lead in the team’s classification.

“I am happy with the team performance today. We had a really good race with Mikhail, Simon Spilak and Pavel Brutt too. Besides, we are the leaders in the team’s classification. Of course, Voeckler had a great race today, he surprised all with his result, but he is in great shape. Tomorrow we will fight till the end to try to change something, maybe win the race. It would be very hard, but at least, we will try.”