Tour de Suisse: Michael Matthews wins tough stage four in sprint finish
Last Updated: 16/06/15 6:48pm
Peter Sagan narrowly missed out on taking the lead of the Tour de Suisse after Michael Matthews outsprinted him to claim victory in stage four.
Sagan could not cope with the finishing burst of the Australian sprinter, riding for Orica-GreenEdge, and the bonus seconds he secured were only enough to move him on to the same time as leader Tom Dumoulin, who retains the yellow jersey on countback.
Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) claimed three bonus seconds earlier in the stage, which finished in Schwarzenbach with a reduced-field sprint involving some of the strongest men in the peloton.
Matthews came out on top by just over a bike length from Sagan, with the Tinkoff-Saxo rider followed home by Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing) and John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin).
Team Sky's Geraint Thomas claimed a bonus second in the sprint Dumoulin won in Simach, and he remains in fourth place overall after coming home in the lead group - his deficit is now nine seconds on Dumoulin, who has been in front since Sunday's prologue.
The close complexion of the race is almost certain to change on Wednesday when the remaining riders take on a tough 237km stage five, finishing with a summit finish on the 'hors categorie' climb of Rettenbachferner.
Stage four result:
1 Michael Matthews (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge 4hrs 36mins 00secs
2 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff-Saxo st
3 Greg van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing st
4 John Degenkolb (Ger) Giant-Alpecin st
5 Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Trek Factory Racing st
6 Daniel Moreno (Esp) Katusha st
7 Silvan Dillier (Sui) BMC Racing st
8 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ,fr st
9 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Etixx - Quick-Step st
10 Robert Gesnik (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo st
Overall standings:
1 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Giant-Alpecin 11hrs 19mins 09secs
2 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff-Saxo st
3 Daniel Moreno (Esp) Katusha +8s
4 Geraint Thomas (Gbr) Team Sky +9s
5 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ.fr +15s
