Wouter Poels wins, Albasini leads in Britain
Wouter Poels won the fourth stage of the Tour of Britain. The Vacansoleil was the first over the finish line after the 171.3km trek from Minehead to Teignmouth after attacking out of the peloton and finish
five seconds ahead of the chase group.
“At first I attacked with eight kilometres to go, but they caught me and I had a bit of recuperation and then I attacked again at four kilometres to go on the little hill and then they didn't see me anymore!"
said Poels, 22.
Fifth-place overall rider Johnny Hoogerland, also for team Vacansoleil, led a three-man breakaway early in the day with Daniel Martin and Matthew Hayman and seemed on the verge of making the jump from
fifth to first before Michael Albasini’s team encouraged a 30-man chase group to take him down.
"We decided as a team to make the race hard because we knew Columbia sent a very strong team, but we also know that (Mark) Renshaw and (Andre) Greipel are not the riders who can close gaps in the mountains,"
said Hoogerland.
Despite numerous attacks out of the chase group, Domenico Pozzovivo was the only rider who could make it work, but it was only temporary. Poels then jumped in the final kilometre and just barely made it
across the finish line without being caught. Dan Martin, who had led the race for most of the stage, was awarded as the most aggressive rider.
"That was a world class breakaway and it has been a really hard week,” said Martin. “The way the race is structured it is hard all day. In Europe, it is hard for the first hour, and then it gets faster
and faster and the last hour is really hard whereas the racing here is a wearing down process."
Poel’s teammate Borut Bozic won the bunch sprint to land a one-two finish for team Vacansoleil. Bozic stands in third place overall, four seconds ahead of Greg Henderson, for Team Sky, four second behind
the runner-up Richie Porte of Saxo Bank and 1:32 behind the overall leader Michael Albasini, of HTC-Columbia.
“My biggest rival is Richie Porte. He is in good shape,” said Albasini. “We saw that in the first few days…he was attacking, he was riding really well. But I think with my team, we can follow him and bring
the jersey to the finish.”
Porte sits in second place overall, 1:28 behind Albasini. He is the leader in the sprint points competition and is tied with Hoogerland at the head of the king-of-the-mountain competition.
“They are not really a major concern for me,” he said of the jerseys. “Maybe the climber’s jersey, but the sprint jersey is just nice to wear. Whatever happens, it has been a good, fun Tour for me so far,
and it has been good training for the world’s time trial.”
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