Tinkoff-Saxo dominated the finale of today's stage of the Tour de Suisse in an attempt to set up Michael Mørkøv and Matti Breschel for the sprint. In the end, however, they hit the front too early and ended outside the top 10.

The fourth and 160 kilometer long flat stage of Tour de Suisse from Heiden to Ossingen offered a chance for the sprinters a chance to do what they do best. That also meant, the GC rider had a chance to recover and prepare for the coming challenges in the mountains.

Laurens De Vreese (Wanty- Groupe Gobert) and Daniel Teklehaimanot (MTN by Qhubeka) leaped up the road after 20 kilometers of racing but from the start, the sprinter teams kept the duo under total observation and control. With 30 kilometers to go, Tinkoff-Saxo were very visible at the front of the pack trying to set up both the Danish national champion, Michael Mørkøv and Matti Breschel while Roman Kreuziger’s biggest ambition today was staying out of trouble.

As the escapees were brought back, the Tinkoff-Saxo riders were pulling the peloton and Michael Mørkøv was in an excellent position for the sprint but Mark Cavendish (Omega-Pharma QuickStep) wanted the stage and was undoubtedly the strongest today and took the win.

Tinkoff-Saxo’s Michael Mørkøv finished just outside the top-10:

“We had two main goals today. We wanted Roman to cross the finish line with all his skin and we wanted to shoot for the stage win with Michael or Matti. We went to the front of the pack a bit early and maybe too early but wanted to make sure, the guys were up there before entering the tricky finale. Here, Michael was put in a great position but he lost the pace on the final 200 meters. Tomorrow, we’ll have a pretty similar opportunity,” says DS, Fabrizio Guidi.

Tony Martin still leads overall.