Trek Factory Racing rode the front all day in defense of the yellow jersey, keeping a three-man breakaway in check, then chased down numerous attacks on the 12-kilometer long finish climb to Marmot Basin ski area before Bauke Mollema needed to exert any real effort.

The teamwork helped Mollema hold onto his overall lead in an exciting summit finish in the 162-kilometer stage four as he crossed the line in second place, four seconds behind Tom-Jelte Slagter (Cannondale-Garmin) with Adam Yates (Orica GreenEdge) coming in third – a mirror finish of Friday’s stage three.

“For all the work the team did today, pulling all day long,” said Mollema, pointing out the huge team effort that was made in stage four. “Everyone did such a great job, and that’s why I really wanted to stay in the leader’s jersey.”

Unlike stage three where the action held off until the final kilometer, Saturday’s long summit climb was an aggressive and exhilarating show for its entire length with attacks all the way to the finish line.

Matthew Busche and Laurent Didier were monumental in shutting down numerous moves on the long climb, allowing Mollema to sit back and save his energy until the final five kilometers.

Adam Yates put in his first serious move with just over two kilometers to go, but the leading group, which numbered around 15-strong, still had enough left in the tank to react and come back to his wheel.

But when Adam Yates accelerated for his second time with just under one kilometer remaining he opened a sobering gap.  Everything exploded as Bauke Mollema dug deep and gave chase with three riders riding his slipstream.

With 200 meters to go Mollema caught back Yates, but Slagter was glued to his wheel – the only rider able to hang with his effort. Slagter immediately countered to take his second straight hilltop win. 

Mollema found some extra energy to surge around Yates and grab second place, but with no bonus seconds on the line today the leaderboard remained the same: Mollema leads Yates by 6 seconds with Slagter moving into third, 22 seconds in arrears.

“It was a 12k climb so there was a lot of attacks,” explained Mollema. “The first half of the climb went quite well, it was hard, but it was not the big GC favorites who were attacking. But the second half of the climb there were even more attacks, and then Yates attacked one kilometer before the top.

“It was a really good attack and I was not able to get on his wheel immediately because I was little bit boxed in on the other side of the road. He had a small gap and then I had to close it, it was up to me of course, and it was really, really hard to close it but in the end I managed to do it. That was one of the hardest kilometers in my life."

The Tour of Alberta continues Sunday with a long 206-kilometer stage and the biggest obstacle will be the nearly 20 kilometers of Alberta gravel roads to contend with.  But with hardened cobblestone specialists like Gregory Rast, Hayden Roulston and Jesse Sergent leading the way, Trek Factory Racing should be able to ride into Edmonton on Monday with the overall lead intact.

“Tomorrow is a really long stage but it is flat with about 20k of gravel roads but I think the last one is 30kms before the finish so I don’t expect a big war,” ended Mollema. “I think the sprinters’ teams will ride for the stage and we will control the race and be able to stay out of the troubles.”