With a powerful sprint finish after a hectic finale to the fourth stage of the Eneco Tour, Peter Sagan took another win, his second in two days, with a bike throw to the line deciding the victor. Peter held off the charge from behind on the headwind finish, timing his lunge to perfection to take the win and the 10 second bonus that moves him into the overall race lead, by seven seconds.
After finding out that he was the stage winner, Sagan said: “I didn’t know I’d won because it was very close with André and after I was waiting for the final result, but I’m very happy with the win because it’s another case of very good timing with the headwind finish. It was a nervous sprint at the end and I had to hold my line next to Démare, but that’s sprinting.”
Looking ahead to tomorrow’s team time trial, Sagan added: “I’m happy, it’s good that I got some more seconds from today. We want to make a good team time trial and do our best and we’ll see how it goes.”
The day’s break initially started with two before two more jumped across the gap in the early stages of the race. With Sagan so close to the top of the GC, Tinkoff was one of the teams that helped control the peloton, but the catch came earlier than expected with still over 50km to race.
From here the attacks came thick and fast, with several groups moving clear. To make things more difficult, the race had entered the tough finishing circuit with cobblestones and two climbs to negotiate.
Despite various attempts to go clear, it all came back together in the final kilometres from which point another hectic sprint unravelled.
Holding his position in the line, then jumping at just the right moment, Sagan was able to power clear and timed it to perfection to hold off a fast closing André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) from behind, giving him his third win in five days.
As well as taking the white jersey of race leader, Sagan extends his lead in the points classification with three stages remaining.
Stage Result
1. Peter Sagan (SVK) Tinkoff 4:44:12
2. André Greipel (GER) Lotto Soudal +00:00:00
3. Alexander Kristoff (NOR) Katusha +00:00:00
4. Arnaud Démare (FRA) FDJ +00:00:00
5. Dylan Groenewegen (NED) Team LottoNL – Jumbo +00:00:00
GC After Stage 4
1. Peter Sagan (SVK) Tinkoff 13:17:29
2. Rohan Dennis (AUS) BMC Racing Team +00:00:07
3. Jos van Emden (NED) Team LottoNL – Jumbo +00:00:12
back to back world championships on the cards perhaps?
the “killer” strikes again — NO one can out sprint Pete !!