Jan Barta again proved that he is one of the best time triallists in the world when he finished just 4 seconds behind Geraint Thomas in the Bayern Rundfahrt time tria. His NetApp-Endura team regretted the narrow defeat and was also disappointed to see Leopold König lose his spot on the overall podium.

The fourth stage of the 35th edition of the Bayern Rundfahrt was held as an 25.5-km time trial in Wassertrüdingen. The Czech master in this discipline, Jan Barta of Team NetApp-Endura, completed the course with the second-fastest time, just 3.3 seconds behind the British specialist Geraint Thomas (Team Sky), who finished with the day’s best time of 30:48 minutes.

With today’s win, Thomas also took the lead in the tour. Leo König of Team NetApp-Endura is fourth in the general classification heading into tomorrow’s final stage. With Barta in sixth place, the team now has two riders in the top 10.

“Given the top-notch competition, Jan’s second place finish is a fantastic result. Of course it’s a bit disappointing when things are so close, but that still doesn’t take away from Jan’s excellent performance.

After Leo’s third place finish, we were very optimistic that he would stay on the podium or even move up a spot or two. But after his long training phase, he still isn’t 100%. While this is a bit disappointing for us right now, we have to keep looking ahead. His performance and form give us every reason to be very optimistic as we look towards the Tour de France,” Enrico Poitschke, Sport Director of Team NetApp-Endura, said after the time trial.

The tour’s final stage will be another challenge for sprinters. The only obstacles on the 160-km route from Wassertrüdingen to Nuremberg will be two category-2 mountain classifications on the first 25 kilometers.

After that, the cyclists will compete for valuable bonus seconds in three sprint classifications. After arriving in Nuremberg, a 5-km circuit lap must be completed ten times to determine the winner of the day and overall winner of this year’s Bayern Rundfahrt.

“We still want to win a stage and will try to do that with Sam [Bennett] in the final stage. He was able to save some of his energy today, so we hope that everything will work out for us tomorrow,” Poitschke added.