After Brice d'Arcalis, Brice Feillu (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) almost became Brice de Suisse this afternoon ... unfortunately his solo attack ended at 24 kilometers from the finish. A mass fall in the last meters of the stage disturbed the bunch sprint. Since he could avoid this fall, the Italian rider Alessandro Petacchi won the stage at the finish in Wettingen.

The summary of the 4th stage of the Tour of Switzerland 2010 : Schwarzenburg > Wettingen

The 192.2 kilometer long stage from Schwarzenburg to Wettingen was announced as the easiest stage of this Tour of Switzerland 2010, made for sprinters. Indeed, the first 140 kilometers of the stage were almost flat, before two climbs of the Regensberg (3rd category) in the two loops around the finish city.

157 riders came to the start in Schwarzenburg, Michael Rogers (HTC-Columbia) was the only one who didn't start. The Australian rider indicated he wanted to do an altitude training after the heavy Tour of California in which he participated in May.

After several attempts without succes, Brice Feillu (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) decided to attack alone after only 10 kilometers. The winner of the Barcelona > Andorra Arcalis stage of the Tour de France 2009 rapidly creates a gap, up to 9'27" at kilometer 35 before the HTC-Columbia team (of the general classification leader Tony Martin) started the pursuit.

At the first intermediate sprint in nOftringen, won by Brice Feillu ahead of Hayden Roulston and Michael Albasini of the HTC-Columbia team, the gap still is 6'25".

When Feillu arrives in Wettingen, he crosses the finish line alone, but still has 2 loops with the climb of the Regensberg to do before the finish. At the first crossing of the finish line, the gap between the young French rider and the peloton is still about 4 minutes and at the first climb of the 3rd category mountain he's still leading alone. At the entrance of the second loop around the finish city, only 40 seconds separate Brice Feillu from the peloton and after 155 kilometers alone in the lead, the French rider of the Dutch team is taken back by the peloton at 24 kilometers from the finish.

The sprint in Otelfingen was won by Steve Morabito (BMC Racing Team) ahead of Francesco Gavazzi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) and Karsten Kroon (BMC Racing Team) while Wouter Poels (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) gets away from the peloton to arrive first at the second crossing of the top of the Regensberg, followed by Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Transitions) and Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto).
A bit later, Hesjedal attacks and thus takes the first place in the last sprint in Niederweningen before being taken back by the peloton at 10 kilometers from the finish.

Philippe Gilbert is the last rider to attack, at 3 kilometers from the finish, but the Belgian rider is quickly taken back by the peloton.

At a few meters from the finish line, in the middle of the bunch sprint, Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) and the winner of Sunday's stage, Heinrich Haussler (Cervélo TestTeam), get their bikes hooked up and generate a massive fall. Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) is one of the riders who manages to get around the fall and the rider of the Italian team thus wins the 4th stage of the Tour of Switzerland 2010.

Tomorrow, a 172.5 kilometer long stage takes the riders of the Tour of Switzerland 2010 from Wettingen to Frutigen before the queen stage on Thursday. Check out my article with the 2010 Tour of Switzerland route on Google Maps to get to know all details of the routes of these stages.

The comments from the winner, Alessandro Petacchi

After the finish of the stage the Italian rider talked about this sprint not quite like any others: At the time of the fall, I was still trying to get to the head of the group but I was too far away and thus normally didn't have any chance to win. I don't exactly what happened ahead. Maybe the head wind has played a role in this fall. At one kilometer from the finish, I was in fourth position. I saw that the sprint would be nervous because of the wind. I saw the fall from far away. I even touched Mark Cavendish who was on the ground..

The fall won't prevent Mark Cavendish from continuing the Tour de Switzerland

In a press release from the HTC-Columbia team one can read that the team's medecin indicated that Mark Cavendish suffered from severe road rash and major bruising and that the rider will undergo X-ray examinations as a precautionary measure. The British rider should however be able to start in the 5th stage of the Tour of Switzerland 2010 tomorrow.

Arnaud Coyot, the French rider of the Caisse d'Epargne team who still quite confident about his possible participation in the Tour de France 2010 in the video I published here yesterday was also part of the fall and for him the impact is much more important. Indeed, he was taken to the hospital and most probably has a broken hip has a broken scaphoid and radius. I hope he won't have any other problems and I wish him a very quick recovery!

The classifications of the Tour of Switzerland 2010 after the 4th stage

The stage classification of the 4th stage Schwarzenburg > Wettingen

Here's the top 10 of this stage which was disturbed by the fall at the end:

1/ Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) - 4h57'33" (38,757 km/h)
2/ Matti Breschel (Team Saxo Bank)
3/ Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team)
4/ José Joaquin Rojas (Caisse d'Epargne)
5/ Robbie McEwen (Katusha Team)
6/ Juan Antonio Flecha (Rabobank)
7/ Daniele Pietropolli (Lampre-Farnese Vini)
8/ Bauke Mollema (Rabobank)
9/ Andreas Klöden (Team Radioshack)
10/ Dries Devenyns (Quick Step)

General classification

No real changes in the general classification after this 4th stage: Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) was part of the massive fall but since it took place in the last 3 kilometers he was given the same time as the rest of the leading group. By winning one of the sprints, Steve Morabito (BMC Racing Team) takes however 3 bonus seconds which allow him to move up from the 8th to the 6th place at 11 seconds from the German rider.

1/ Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) - 14h35'37"
2/ Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank) - +0'01"
3/ Thomas Löfkvist (Team Sky) - +0'09"
4/ Rigoberto Uran (Caisse d'Epargne) - +0'10"
5/ Dries Devenyns (Quick Step) - +0'11"
6/ Steve Morabito (BMC Racing Team) - +0'11"
7/ Fränk Schleck (Team Saxo Bank) - +0'13"
8/ Jakob Fuglsang (Team Saxo Bank) - +0'14"
9/ Nicolas Castroviejo (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - +0'15"
10/ Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) - +0'17"

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Tour of Switzerland | Tour of Switzerland 2010 | UCI ProTour

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