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Ethan Vernon (Israel-Premier Tech) took two stage wins on the fourth stage of the Gree Tour from Guangxi, fending off an attack from Max Kanter (Astana Qazaqstan) and extending his lead in the Tour’s fourth mass sprint race to Jinchengjiang.
The Brit started with a perfect lead from compatriot Jake Stewart, who gave him a late lead in the final 300 meters before sprinting to the finish line to take his third win of the season.
Behind Vernon and Kanter, Alberto Grossmesso (Bahrain – Victorious) was in third place as the peloton sprinted home, having caught up with the remnants of the day’s breakaway group in the final 2.4km.
Vernon extended his lead in the overall standings to nine seconds over Kanter, who is now second, while previous runner-up Juan Sebastian Molano (UAE Team Emirates) fell back after going nowhere in the sprint.
However, it is very likely that tomorrow will be Vernon’s last day in the leader’s jersey, as the summit finish in Nongla finally gives the GC contenders present in China the chance to show their end-of-season form.
How it developed
After the mass accident at the beginning of the third stage, a significantly smaller peloton lined up in Bama to tackle the 176.8 km long stage to Jinchengjiang. Six riders retired during Thursday’s stage and three did not start on Friday, leaving 119 riders in the peloton when the flag fell on National Road to signal the start of the race.
What lay ahead was 176.8km with 2,140m of elevation gain, the most climbing in one day of the Tour, but with the final categorized climb peaking about 35km from the finish, the crucial GC day is still expected to be on The summit goal is the 5th stage on Saturday.
The first challenge was the Category 2 climb at 13.4km at the start of race day, followed by a Category 3 at 45.5km and another at 91.6km before the final Category 2 challenge at 141.8km took place.
The first three days may have been mass sprints, but it was close enough that the group was keen to try again, especially given the bumpy profile.
As soon as the race started, the attacks began and the break, characterized by repeat offenders, quickly built up. Stan Dewulf (Decathlon AG2R la Mondiale), Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost), Taco van der Hoorn (Intermarché – Wanty) and Pepijn Reinderink (Soudal-QuickStep) were the riders at the front.
For Reinderink there was something else at stake besides the stage: the Soudal Quickstep rider was second in the King of the Mountains classification at the start of the day behind Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale).
Reinderink took the top points in the first KOM after 13.4 km and then again in the next one after 45.5 km in the race, knocking De Bondt out of the top spot in the virtual KOM standings.
The next points on the Category 3 climb halfway through the stage went to Reinderink again, with the group of four continuing to hold a lead of just over two minutes over the peloton, where the overall standings’ Israel-Premier Tech team leader Vernon was working on the front to keep the group under control. Vernon may now be in the squad in red, but ultimately their plan for him has already been realized, a stage win, while the GC plan lies with young star Joe Blackmore.
During the final categorized climb, Bisseger fell away from the lead group and riders also began to move away from the back of the peloton as the pressure at the front continued to mount.
Winning Bahrain rider Robert Stannard went on the attack from the peloton, while striker Reinderink added further top points to his increasingly impressive KOM tally. Stannard was quickly caught again, but as this was playing out the gap between the leaders and the field was also rapidly narrowing, having dropped well under a minute with 30km to go.
Van der Hoorn began to fade quickly in the final stages of the race, leaving only Dewulf and Reinderink trying to survive. The pair made it to the final intermediate sprint, where Dewulf picked up three more bonus seconds, bringing his daily total to six, putting him just shy of the virtual race lead.
UAE Team Emirates and Bahrain-Victorious did much of the work from behind as the peloton melted the breakaway group’s lead and moved towards the final sprint in Jinchengjiang, with Dewulf and Reinderink finally rejoining two kilometers from the finish.
On the wide final kilometer road, Visma-Lease a Bike were best positioned until they were washed away and overtaken on either side by several trains ahead keeping an eye on the line, with Stewart Vernon steering perfectly through the wheels 400 meters from the finish.
Vernon then started confidently in the red jersey at the perfect moment and showed great strength to easily stop Kanter and Grossmesso, who were quickly approaching on either side of him.
Results provided by FirstCycling
