The fourth stage at the Tour des Fjords inflicted big damage on the overall classification. Three men from a dangerous 15-rider late escape group, which also contained Danny van Poppel, were able to hold off the chasing peloton to contest the stage win, with the rest of the break arriving moments later.

Over the line, Søren Kragh Andersen (Trefor-Blue Water) snagged the stage victory and with it the leader’s jersey. Danny van Poppel finished in 13th place. 

The top three in GC all finished a minute or more behind, resulting in big changes to the leaderboard. Alexander Kristoff lost his leader’s jersey and dropped to seventh, while Jasper Stuyven dropped from third to 20th, also conceding his best young rider jersey.

The 166.8-kilometer race started and finished under sunshine for the first time, but theparcours, unlike the weather, did not ease.

Stijn Devolder was part of an early 4-man breakaway that gained up to seven minutes before a few ambitious teams hastily chased them down with still some 60 kilometers to race. 

Director Dirk Demol explained the early part of the race: “Jasper went for the first bonification sprint and he took third so he gained one second to keep third GC. Then Stijn [Devolder] went with a breakaway and they had a nice gap but three teams begin to chase right away and they brought them back before kilometer 100.”

The critical moment of the race happened over a narrow section of the course, with around 50 riders remaining in the lead peloton, and around 45 kilometers to go.

Dirk Demol described how the dangerous late breakaway managed to escape:

“We came into a very, very narrow section that we had no info about. Laurent [Didier] came back to the car to tell us that there was a big group away and Danny was there.  But we didn’t know how many, or who was with him, and the gap grew to 3 minutes before we knew the situation! It was ridiculous.

“But we have to be honest because Jasper [Stuyven] said already at the start of the race that he was not feeling 100%. We had to do the steep climb four times at the end, it was 1km and over 20% - it was really a wall.  We played our chances with Danny in the breakaway especially since Jasper wasn’t sure he could hang with the top guys.”

Katusha and Orica GreenEdge led a furious chase behind for Kristoff and second placed Daryl Impey respectively, but the gap was too large. 

Ahead the breakaway split and five riders went clear on the final lap with Danny van Poppel. With only five kilometers remaining and the gap to the peloton at 90 seconds, everything was looking good for Trek Factory Racing.

However, by the bottom of the last time up the wall eight riders regained contact to the five leaders, and by the top three men emerged and maintained a gap to the line to fight out the win.

“I can be happy that we had the chance with Danny in the breakaway and it’s a pity he blew the last time up the climb. The whole race we were in the front, in the breakaways, so yes disappointment at the end, but on the other side the guys really did their best. It’s always the same – if you don’t try, you have nothing. I am not going to point blame when we get dropped from the breakaway, because we were there," Demol said.