Today's stage, 173,5 kilometers long between La Motte-Servolex and Mâcon was destined to be won by a sprinter. And despite a leading duo which almost continued till the finish, the stage indeed ended up with a sprint, and it was again the young German rider John Degenkolb (Team HTC-Highroad) who put his hands up in the air!

No changes in the general classification where Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) keeps his yellow-bleu leader's jersey.

The summary of the 4th stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2011 - La Motte-Servolex > Mâcon

Apart from a pretty steep climb of the Col du Chat (2nd category) almost immediately after the start from La Motte-Servolex, today's stage was pretty much without any difficulties.

Only Stefan Denifl (Team Leopard-Trek) didn't come to the start early this afternoon and it were thus 174 riders who started from La Motte-Servolex.

Already attacking in the 2nd and 3rd stage, the rider from Tours, Jérémy Roy decided to give it another try at kilometer 4 today. With more success than in the previous stages because this time the rider of the FDJ team really created a gap and a bit further he was joined only by Adriano Malori (Lampre-ISD) who would become his buddy on the road today.

The two of them, extended the gap already in the climb of the Col du Chat and it reached 3'05" right from the top of this climb. This was apparently not yet enough for them because the leading duo continued to extend their gap, to it's maximum of 4'25" after 58 kilometers in the race.

After having reached it's maximum, Team Sky of classification leader Bradley Wiggins decides to manage the gap leading the peloton to stabilise it around 3'40".
While Francesco Reda (Quick Step) and Mirko Selvaggi (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) leave the race, Roy and Malori continue their adventure together and since the top 3 on the tops of the 3 climbs of the day is always the same: Malori, Roy and Leonardo Duque (Cofidis), Duque, the Colombian rider, takes the polka dot jersey of the King of the Mountains classification at the end of this stage.

In the last 50 kilometers the sprinters teams show up at the head of the peloton in order to prepare a bunch sprint. The gap of the leading duo thus quickly drops back, but we still had to wait until 2.2 kilometers from the finish before they were taken back.

Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) is the first to launch his final sprint but in the last 10 meters, John Degenkolb (Team HTC-Highroad) seems to come falling from the sky when he gets over the Norwegian rider and wins the stage, the 3rd in 3 days for his team and the second for him in this Critérium du Dauphiné, after his victory in Lyon.

Tomorrow, the 5th stage will bring the riders from the Parc des Oiseaux in Villars-les-Dombes to Les Gets and with 210 kilometers this is not only the longest stage but also one of the toughest. The opportunities for a stage victory for one of the sprinters are now thus definitely behind us ... If you want to see the rest of the race route of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2011, you can read the article The Critérium du Dauphiné 2011 race route on Google Maps/Google Earth and the route and time schedule.

© photo illustration of the article : Pierre Veysillier, petercircus.com.

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Critérium du Dauphiné 2011 | Criterium du Dauphiné

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