Luke Rowe is narrowly denied a top-10 spot on the fourth stage of the Tour du Suisse.
Demare sprints to victory as Frank stays in yellow
Luke Rowe was narrowly denied a top-10 spot on the fourth stage of the Tour du Suisse after Arnaud Demare had sprinted to a fine victory in Buochs.
Team Sky hit the front after Jens Voigt’s daring late dig had been annulled, but Rowe got boxed in on a tight and twisting finale, and despite his best efforts, had to settle for 12th place on the day after Demare had romped to a well-timed victory over Matthew Goss.
Goss’s Orica-GreenEDGE team-mate Baden Cooke had led the peloton into the final corner with Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) and Goss poised right on his wheel, but Demare (FDJ) surged up the inside on the sweeping left-hander before powering on for his fifth success of the season.
The result had little bearing on the general classification - all the main contenders rolled home in a sizable lead group which ensured Mathias Frank (BMC) maintained his 23-second lead over Roman Kreuziger (Saxo–Tinkoff) at the top of the standings.
Early attack
The 174.4km trek from Innertkirchen had followed the tried and tested formula for a sprint stage with Voigt (RadioShack-Leopard) forming part of a three-man break right from the gun.
He, Oliver Kaisen (Lotto-Belisol) and Robert Vrecer (Euskaltel-Euskadi) saw their advantage grow to over four minutes as they crossed the day’s first categorised climb, but Kaisen was dropped on the next ascent and the duo’s lead nearly came to a premature end in the last 8km when they were almost held up at a railway crossing.
By that point, the peloton was baring down on them but Voigt battled on bravely and launched a daring solo attack as he passed the 5km to go banner.
Voigt’s days were ultimately numbered with the flamme rouge in sight, and despite Team Sky’s prominence in the closing stages, it was Demare who emerged to take his victory by less than half a bike length.
Hunt stresses the positives
Back on the bus, Sports Director Dan Hunt revealed it had been a difficult day with Joe Dombrowski and Ben Swift both suffering problems en route to the finish, but he was pleased with his team's performance and insisted morale remains high with five stages to go.
He told us: "Things didn't go to plan today because Joe crashed hard again and Swifty was struggling with stomach problems. The original plan had been to lead Swifty out for the sprint but halfway through the stage that changed so we decided to ride for Luke.
"With Swifty and Joe unable to contribute, we didn't have a full lead out but Mathew [Hayman], Bernie [Eisel] and Gabba [Rasch] did a big job to guide Luke into contention and it was unfortunate he got swamped a bit in the melee which followed.
"That said, we gave it a good go and a 12th-placed finish is good for Luke given that it's the first time he's been in that position for almost a year.
"We're here to try things and we'll do so again tomorrow. It's quite exciting in that respect because it's not the way we normally race - these guys usually race in the service of others, but they're all getting their chance to shine here.
"Tomorrow's stage has two climbs in the circuit but we're predicting a bunch sprint again so we'll aim to come out fighting once again."
