Excellent work by Lotto-Belisol delivered Andre Greipel to his first stage win of this year's Tour Down Under while Cadel Evans (BMC) saw his lead over Simon Gerrans cut to less than ten seconds as the Orica-GreenEdge man took time at the intermediate sprints.
German champion Greipel enjoyed an armchair ride to the stage victory ahead of teammate Jurgen Roelandts and Elia Viviani (Cannondale), as Marcel Kittel was caught out as crosswinds split the race on the exposed roads of South Australia.
Speaking after the stage, Grepiel was quick to heap praise on his teammates, "It was an incredible team effort today and we deserved the win. I was already confident before, I just made mistakes in sprints. I'm just happy that this time it paid off."
But perhaps the main winner of the day was Gerrans who clawed back time at both the intermediate sprints to reduce Cadel Evans' advantage in the overall classification to only 7 seconds, although the Orica-GreenEdge rider was disappointed to miss out on further bonuses at the stage finish.
'Today it went pretty well with the time bonus I was after. It would have been great to finish one place higher and get more time bonus, but a flat bunch sprint isn't my speciality. With two stages to go the race for the overall remains wide open.'
With an intermediate sprint after 25km, the race for the overall came to the fore from the very start of today's stage. Unsurprisingly it was Orica-Greenedge who controlled the peloton to delay the establishment of the day's break, allowing team leader Gerrans to take the sprint and its three bonus seconds to move within nine seconds of Cadel Evans in his quest for the ochre jersey.
When the break was established it was a five-man group that went clear, with Cameron Wurf (Cannondale), and Wesley Sulzberger (Drapac) flying the flag for Australia alongside Michael Anderson (Tinkoff-Saxo), Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar), and Axel Domont, (Ag2r).
Despite building a lead of over four minutes, the pace obviously wasn't good enough for Domont and Wurf, who attacked their breakaway companions with 92km to go.
But with 50km remaining the racing really kicked off, with Orica-GreenEdge forcing the pace in the wind in an attempt to set Gerrans up for the intermediate sprint in Yankalilla, taking a group of around 60 riders away and sweeping up the break in the process.
At the intermediate sprint it was Nathan Haas (Garmin-Sharp) who took the honours, but with Gerrans in second, the lead of Evans was now down to seven seconds.
As the staged approached its finale, a small rise 4km from the finish provided a springboard for a few attacks from the non-sprinters, with the Omega Pharma-Quickstep duo of Jan Bakelants and Serge Pauwels quickly taking a 10 second gap.
For a moment the move looked threatening, but with 1.5km to go Marcel Sieberg went to the head of Lotto-Belisol team to bring everything back together, and it was Greipel who rewarded the hard work of his teammates, moving clear in the final 150m to take the stage victory in handsome fashion ahead of Roelandts and Viviani.
With Gerrans missing out on the time bonuses in fourth, Evans will be relieved to take a seven second lead into the penultimate stage, but will be put under more pressure on Willunga Hill tomorrow.
Stage 4 Result: Unley-Victor Harbor, 148.5km
1. Andre Greipel (Ger) Lotto-Belisol 3:33:07
2. Jurgen Roelandts (Bel) Lotto-Belisol
3. Elia Viviani (Ita) Cannondale
4. Simon Gerrans (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge
5. Nathan Haas (Aus) Garmin-Sharp
6. Daryl Impey (RSA) Orica-GreenEdge
7. Maxime Bouet (Fra) Ag2r La Mondiale
8. Nikolay Trusov (Rus) Tinkoff-Saxo
9. Antony Roux (Fra) FDJ.fr
10. Francesco Gavazzi (Ita) Astana
General Classification after Stage 4
1. Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC 14:19:46
2. Simon Gerrans (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge 00:00:07
3. Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre-Merida 00:00:14
4. Nathan Haas (Aus) Garmin-Sharp 00:00:23
5. Robert Gesink (Ned) Belkin 00:00:29
6. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky
7. Daryl Impey (RSA) Orica-GreenEdge 00:00:33
8. Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC
9. Rory Sutherland (Aus) Tinkoff-Saxo
10. Richie Porte (Aus) Team Sky
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