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Stage 4 - 2010 Tour of Britain

September 11-18; UCI 2.1 | Home Page for News & Reports

Stage 4: Minehead to Teignmouth (106 miles, Sept 14)

Wouter Poels (Vacansoleil) won a great fourth stage of the race having been in the thick of the action, along with the rest of his team for much of another long hard day in the saddle. His team-mate Jonny Hoogerland was briefly in "virtual" yellow as he lead a break with Dan Martin and Matthew Hayman which dominated the second half of the stage and Hoogerland still had enough left in the tank to finish with the leaders whilst his teammates, Poels and Bozic claimed a deserved 1-2 on the stage.

Slideshow of exclusive photos from the fourth stage

The fourth stage of the Tour of Britain took the race from Minehead on the Somerset coast, into the Eastern fringes of Exmoor and the testing climbs of Lype Hill and Raleghs Cross. From there it was a southerly run down through the western fringes of the Quantock and Blackdown Hills and then along the hilly Devon coastline between Sidmouth and Budleigh Salterton, before hooking inland around the Exe estuary, past Exeter and down to the finish at Teignmouth.

Again the weather played a part, with rain and wind combining with the difficult topography and narrow roads to test riders both physically and technically.

A big crowd started the trend of packed roads for the Tour of Britain as the South West came out to welcome the bike race on their roads.

From the gun the attacks began, with the two big Exmoor climbs tempting riders keen to move up the GC or forge a stage-winning break. Within a half hour a break including Russell Downing (Sky), Kristian House (Rapha-Condor Sharp), Jaroslav Marycz (Saxo Bank), Ronan Van Zandbeek (Skill-Shimano) and Dan Martin (Garmin) had formed up and were steadily pulling away from a strung-out peloton.

The Vacansoleil team, who had played such a big part in the unseating of Greg Henderson on the Black Mountain the day before, were prominent again at the front of the peloton as they set about chasing the leaders down over Lype Hill. They duly pulled them back, though Dan Martin counter-attacked and went away alone. Behind him, the chase had split the peloton into two distinct groups, with a 24 second gap between them. The race leader, Michael Albasini was safely in the front group.

Rider from Skil was the first one to attack the stage not long after they passed through Zero Kilometre.

On the descent off Lype Hill there were a number of crashes, with Martin Reimer (Cervelo) forced to pull out of the race after picking up a range of injuries. There was also some re-grouping after the next climb of Raleghs Cross, especially in the front group.

However, as the race headed south toward Honiton, more attacks produced another break of Dan Martin - who had been busy all stage up to this point - Matt Hayman of Sky and Jonny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil).

They pulled clear of the leading fragment of the peloton and soon had over three minutes lead, which put Hoogerland into yellow on the road. Vacansoleil's earlier work had clearly been geared to engineering a chance for Hoogerland to put himself into a position to win the race overall.

With the position of their race leader, Albasini, under threat, it came as no surprise to see the first chasing group being led by four Columbia HTC riders. They were soon whittling away at the break's lead. Meanwhile, the second portion of the main field had effectively given up the chase and were running over 20 minutes down as the race approached the south coast and the beginning of the flat run in to Teignmouth.

Dan Martin gets his point across in one of his many breaks.

With the Saxo Bank team also lending a hand in the chase, the leaders were pulled back to just over half a minute as the race entered the final 20km, which meant that Albasini was effectively back into yellow.

Despite a spirited effort up the brutal cliff-top climb out of Sidmouth inevitably, the break was finally swept up in the closing kilometres, with Dan Martin fittingly the last to succumb as the race climbed out of Dawlish with less than 10km to go.

Having missed out on their attempts to wrest the race lead from Columbia, Vacansoleil rode like men possessed in the run in and Wouter Poels managed to time a late attack with just over 2km to go to perfection: one minute he was just going clear, the next he had an unassailable gap as he swept onto the seafront finish, where he was able to attend to the various sartorial adjustments the pros always go through as they approach the line, before calmly celebrating the win.

Once the rain had gone, the villages in the South West looked great as the race passed through.

He then had the satisfaction of seeing team-mate Bozic claim second as he led in a small group of riders, including the race leader, Albesini, who recovered from a badly timed puncture on the Sidmouth climb, to keep his lead intact, with half the race and the majority of the serious climbing behind him. He'll now take some unseating.

However it was Vacansoleil's day: they had all the main moves covered and were the instigators or co-conspirators in most of the day's successful moves. Alongside them, Dan Martin had his second big day in a row and was perhaps a little unlucky that he didn't gain more from his constant aggression.

Wouter Poels wins stage 4 by the seaside.

Post Race Reactions
Jack Bauer (Endura Racing): Talking about the break by Wouter Poels at the finish, he says “I thought we would pull him back, he jumped with about two go and held it in this headwind and it is a long run in so it was an awesome ride. But we’re happy. Partridge and me made the break and we were sitting in 10th overall this morning, so it was good to have him up there. I was happy to be there myself.”

“It wasn’t the hardest stage in the race for me. I think if you had been in the break, yeah, but because were in the second group and Columbia and Saxobank were controlling it, so it wasn’t that bad. It was steady sitting in the wheels and the climbs too were nice and steady.”

“In the finale, Martin was still off the front and we pulled two of them back, and then Kristian House hit out and Columbia were still on the front and they stayed on the front until they pulled back Martin. So nothing could go away until 5k to go. It was a bit savage when the attacks started. You are so empty after 170k and to answer to them was a bit tough.”

“In the sprint, I was waiting, waiting, because Porte and Albansini were on the front when the Vacansoleil guy attacked and he was kinda coming back so I thought I’m not going yet because they’d tow me back but because I don’t have much of a sprint, I have to go early.”

“It was a real pity to miss the break on day 2 when I ruined my GC chances but I am enjoying it.”.

An early break lead by Dan Martin from Kristian House. Also in there is Russell Downing.

Daniel Martin (Garmin): “I’ll be pretty peeved if I don’t get the aggressive award! Everytime I went, there was a GC guy there and I was trying to get them to sit up and go back but Hoogerland wouldn’t because he was sure Columbia were going to blow up. Even when I went solo, they still chased me down.”

“I had fun out there and it was unbelievable the number of people by the side of the road which was fantastic to see. Those roads today are lot easier when you’re racing them but the way I raced them, it was really hard. Some of those roads are bit dangerous and so you have to think what if there’s a crash. It is though a beautiful countryside that we have here and it was an epic day.”

“Everyone was pulling in the three up break I was in but I think we were all really tired at the end but everyone was committed and it was a good little group. I think it shows the strength in depth of the peloton here. That was a world class breakaway and it has been a really hard week. The way the race is structured it is hard all day. In Europe, it is hard for the first hour, and then it gets faster and faster and the last hour is really hard where as the racing here is a wearing down process.”

“With the small teams, that doesn’t help and can make it a bit negative and if teams get in a breakaway, the race just shuts down. I think if it was eight man teams, it would be a totally different race but that would change the character of the race and you don’t want to change that.”

Wouter Poels (Vacansoleil, Stage winnner): “The team is really strong and all our riders are riding very good and today was a super day. At the beginning, we did a lot of work on the front on the first climb to drop a lot of riders which was pretty good but then Saxo Bank started riding with Columbia and there was the chance for me to win the stage.”

“First, I attack at 8k before the finish and then when I was caught, I recover and attack again at 4k on the little hill and they didn’t see me anymore! I knew it was difficult with a lot of corners and the road was a little bit wet, and so I take some risks, I can win the stage or I crash.”

“Four weeks ago I win my first stage but this was also a nice one. The course was really hard with the three climbs". Wouter also explained that the day before he had got a call from the Dutch manager saying he can ride the worlds and that it was nice to win after that news.

Johnny Hoogerland (KoM leader, Vacansoleil, GC Contender): “It is part of my character to attack and the team went out to make the race hard. We knew Columbia was a very strong team but we also know that Renshaw and Greipel are not riders who can close gaps in mountains or hills.”

“Six riders broke away and they directly blocked the road and it was perfect but then the climbs start and first Golas make a little speed and then Wouter ride the whole climb nearly. And then Sinkewitz attacked and at the top we were just the 10 riders. Then they came back and we attacked again and at one point, I was with three, (Hayman & Martin).”

“Martin was angry and said “what are you doing here, you are general (GC rider) and I say to him they are all pretty tired behind and we just drove and at first it was 30 seconds, then 40 seconds and at one point it was four minutes. Then I was thinking I am going to get the general and I tell the other guys I don’t sprint for the stage, I just want the general.”

“But, Saxo also start riding, I really don’t know why”.

 “I think to win the GC will be difficult. It is hard to say who will control the race but it is possible as  Columbia only have Martin left for the mountains now. We are not sitting in the peloton tomorrow for sure. We still keep fighting.” 

For the Rapha Condor Sharp team the day was another frustrating one from the point of view of team manager John Herety. Speaking after the finish he talked of his frustration at how the race has unfolded so far:

“At the midway point in the race and things haven’t gone as well as we’d have hoped. There’s two ways of looking at this, we either look back and dissect the race so far a but I’d prefer to concentrate on the remaining four stages and focus on getting things right between here and London."

"The guys are well prepared for the race and they’ve shown themselves to be capable time and again of riding well at this level. They’ve worked hard to get ready for this race and they know that their hard work will eventually reap its rewards.”

Hugh Porter, Anna and Lauren having some fun before the presentation.

Pre-Race Rider Interview - Ian Bibby (Motorpoint Marshals Pasta)

Second on stage 3, British Cycling spoke to Ian Bibby before stage 4 where he said he was reasonably pleased with his ride the day before. “I had been trying to get away and I got away with Dan Martin at the start and thought that was going to go, but that came back. Nothing really went for fourty or fifty minutes and then a group went and I went across with a Topsport rider and then it was just ride.”

Talking about Black Mountain, Ian explained “Meyer went away on there but I didn’t see the point and then the two Columbia lads came up and they were really nailing it like. They got away (from their group) on the descent and joined us on the flatter roads and that put some firepower in our little group. Then we hit that climb (Constitution Hill) and I started it a little bit far back and that Albasini went off. Tony Martin had just done a turn for him for 8k so he (Albasini) hit that and gapped us quite a bit.”

“I jumped the guy I was with on the descent and got second so it wasn’t too bad. I was happy just to get a result. I felt I have been going alright all year like in the stage races abroad. I was pretty gutted because the three weeks before this, I had done a load of training for this race and have been struggling in the three weeks leading up to this.”

“I was getting a bit worried but luckily I have come around this week and was pretty happy with how I felt on the stage. If I’d been told I would get a podium on a stage a few weeks ago, I’d have been pretty happy and it shows it’s not out of my league.”

Asked about Constitution Hill, he says, “I came round the corner, and I looked up and was next to Macca (Jonny McEvoy) and I said ‘oh my god’. It looked like a wall. I thought I was going to be walking it and then I thought about what we do in ‘cross and running it which can be just as fast. I had a 25 on but the Columbia lad had a 27 on. I think that would have helped a bit, not in going faster but it wouldn’t have taken the sting out of the legs.”

Yellow jersey Michael Albasini (Team HTC - Columbia) with Anna and Lauren.

Results (Full Results)

Stage Four Results (Minehead to Teignmouth, 171.3km)
1) Wout Poels (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team), 4:30:35
2) Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) @ 05
3) Koen De Kort (Skil - Shimano) @ same time
4) Jack Bauer (Endura Racing) @ same time
5) Patrick Sinkewitz (ISD - Neri Giambenini) @ same time
 
Honda Combativity Award winner: Daniel Martin (Garmin - Transitions Pro Cycling Team)
 
General Classification (after four stages):
1) Michael Albasini (Team HTC - Columbia), 15:27:41
2) Richie Porte (Team Saxo Bank) @ 1:28
3) Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) @ 1:32
4) Greg Henderson (Team Sky) @ 1:36
5) Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) @ 1:42
 
The Prostate Cancer Charity Points Jersey: Michael Albasini (Team HTC - Columbia)
 
The King of the Mountains Jersey: Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team)
 
The Sprints Jersey: Richie Porte (Team Saxo Bank)