Tour De Suisse 2016: Stage 4 Results, Highlights and Updated Standings
Etixx-Quick-Step's Maximiliano Richeze took a shocking win during Tuesday's 2016 Tour de Suisse action, beating team-mate Fernando Gaviria and Tinkoff-Saxo's Peter Sagan during Stage 4's bunch sprint.
The Argentinian was Gaviria's lead man coming around the final corner, but the Colombian and Sagan appeared to get in each other's way, and neither was able to overtake Richeze in time. Sagan remains the overall leader.
Here's a look at the results from Tuesday's stage, via the Tour de Suisse's official Twitter account:
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
The current overall standings:
Recap
Tuesday's stage started in miserable weather conditions, with rain and wind cutting through the peloton.
Matthew Brammeier (Dimension Data), Jeremy Maison (FDJ), Lukas Jaun (Team Roth) and Nick van der Lijke (Roompot) didn't waste any time sitting around, launching an early attack before the peloton even hit the first climb of the day.
Maison was the best-placed rider of the group, sitting well over three minutes behind Sagan in the standings, but the peloton kept the pace remarkably high early, likely to combat the low temperatures.
The lead hovered between three and four minutes for the bulk of the stage, and with 90 kilometres to go, the peloton upped the pace. Tinkoff-Saxo led the way, with Sagan sitting pretty to add yet another stage win to his resume and defend his leader's jersey.
As the weather cleared and the riders grew more comfortable, the pace increased even more. Etixx-Quick-Step moved to the front of the bunch as well, while Sagan dropped back momentarily, likely due to a mechanical issue. Frans Maassen of rival team LottoNL-Jumbo took the opportunity to have a little chat:
With 50 kilometres to go, the gap was just 90 seconds, and the peloton seemed determined to time their chase to perfection. Due to the hilly nature of the finale, it made no sense catching the leaders too soon, as the sprint teams would then be forced to waste energy going after new breaks.
Jaun dropped out of the front group and was quickly picked up by the peloton, who were really pushing the tempo with 20 kilometres left. The Tour de Suisse's official Twitter account shared this short video:
Brammeier lost ground on his fellow leaders during the final climb but hung on until the top, while at the back, former race leader Fabian Cancellara of Trek-Segafredo was dropped.
The gap between the leaders and the peloton dropped to just 10 seconds, and Maison grew impatient, launching an attack. His effort was futile, however, as the peloton caught up and the expected bunch sprint took place.
Etixx-Quick-Step led with their train and Sagan followed Gaviria, but it was lead-out man Richeze who surprisingly took the stage win, as neither Gaviria or Sagan completed their jump.
Team CEO Patrick Lefevere praised Etixx-Quick-Step's team effort to grab the win:
The Tour de Suisse finally hits the high mountains on Wednesday, as the peloton makes its way to Cari. Three major categorised climbs, including two topping out more than 2000 metres, will shake up the general classification, and Global Cycling Network picked out this stage as one of the key deciders for the general classification:
Stage 6, toward Amden, will be another tough mountain stage, handing the favourites the chance to do some real damage to the standings.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
