Paul Magnier won the fourth stage of the Tour of Britain again. The fast French rider from Soudal-Quick Step was the quickest in the bunch sprint, beating Ethan Vernon (Israel-Premier Tech) and Erland Blikra (Uno-X Mobility), who finished second and third, respectively. This was Magnier’s second stage victory in this edition of the Tour of Britain. Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) kept his leader's jersey.
After Williams secured his second stage win the previous day, the Friday stage was set up for the sprinters, given its mostly flat terrain between Derby and Newark-On-Trent. There were few elevation gains, and the last 40 kilometers were nearly pancake flat, making a bunch sprint almost inevitable.
Ben Swift starts a battle, followed by three escapees
Ben Swift (INEOS Grenadiers) perhaps had different plans, as he attacked right from the start. He built up a two-minute lead, after which a trio decided to bridge the gap to the Brit. These were Liam O'Brien (Lidl-Trek Future Racing), Scott McGill (Project Echelon Racing) and Rowan Baker (Saint Piran). They closed the gap to Swift, but strangely, they soon saw Swift say goodbye to them. He decided to wait for the peloton after all.
The trio, however, did not give up and stayed ahead for a long time. The peloton, led all day by Soudal-Quick Step and Israel-Premier Tech, kept them in check. The breakaway riders consistently had a lead of about two minutes.
Read more below the video.
Intermediate sprint causes chaos, Alaphilippe gets involved
When the peloton approached within half a minute of the breakaway at 25 kilometers from the finish, O'Brien decided to accelerate. He left McGill and Baker behind and continued solo. At that point, the race also exploded in the peloton due to the available bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint, which resulted in the breakaway being caught in no time.
Julian Alaphilippe took advantage of the chaos and launched an attack 16 kilometers from the finish. A somewhat strange move from the Frenchman, considering that he had Magnier, possibly the fastest man in the race, as a teammate. Alaphilippe was quickly reeled back in, after which a series of attacks followed. Tom Pidcock (INEOS Grenadiers) tried in vain, and his teammate Ethan Hayter also took a shot. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) once again proved to be a good teammate by closing all the gaps.
Read more below the video.
After a phase of unrest, a sprint finish
After all the teams accepted that no attack was going to succeed, we saw the sprint trains forming. Alaphilippe and Evenepoel were positioned well at the front during the final phase to support their finisher, Magnier. The double Olympic champion delivered Alaphilippe and Magnier perfectly, and the two-time world champion gave his sprinter an excellent lead-out. Magnier came with a powerful sprint on the outside and won convincingly. Vernon finished second, and Blikra came third.
Stage 4 Tour of Britain 2024
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