Thor Hushovd wins fourth stage as Damiano Cunego retains his overall lead in 2011 Tour de Suisse
Garmin-Cervelo team’s Thor Hushovd and also the World Champion won the fourth stage of 2011 Tour de Suisse on Tuesday, June 14. The Italian rider, Cunego, maintained his overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The race started in Grindelwald and ended in Huttwil. The 33-year-old Norwegian took a total of 4 hours, 46 minutes and 5 seconds to cover the distance of 198.4 kilometres.
After winning the stage, Thor told the media, "It was a quiet day, Not too many attacks and I only had to work hard in the last 20-km when the pace really picked up. It was all about positioning in the last few hundred metres and making the right decisions
in a split second.”
In the final 200 metres, Peter Sagan attacked, but failed and grabbed the runner's-up position. Marco Marcato of Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling finished in the third spot with a difference of 2 seconds.
The stage winner, Damiano Cunego, was in 13th spot ahead of Javier Megias (Type 1 - Sanofi Aventis) and Luca Paolini (Katusha Team).
A group of three riders made their first breakaway, which included, Lloyd Mondory of AG2R La Mondiale, Sylvain Chavanel of Quick Step and Cesare Benedetti of NetApp.
After 80 kilometres, they gained a lead of five minutes over the peloton. The Frenchman, Lloyd Mondory, won the first and second sprint of the stage.
With 12.3 kilometres left in the race, Sergey Lagutin of Vacansoleil-DCM attacked and quickly joined the two riders, Jan Bakelants and Daniel Oss, but all of them were caught by the peloton.
However, in the final few kilometres of the race, Peter tried his best to maintain his pace, but he failed to gain the lead. Thor was quick to react and crossed the finish-line ahead of other cyclists without any difficulty.
Thor said, "I was under a lot of pressure to get this first victory as world champion. There was never any doubt about my condition so now I've got the win I feel much more relaxed."
Lampre – ISD team’s Damiano Cunego maintained his overall standing with a timing of 12 hours, 29 minutes and 23 seconds. Movistar rider, Mauricio Soler was in the second spot with 54 seconds behind the Italian.
Bauke Mollema of Rabobank finished third with a difference of 1 minute and 16 seconds.
Peter Sagan was leading in overall point classification with 45 points ahead of Damiano. Laurens Ten Dam won the title of King of Mountain (KOM) with 34 points ahead of Cunego.
The next stage will start in Huttwil and end in Tobel-Tagerschen. All the riders will cover the distance of 204.2 kilometres.
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