Matt Teggart's WivSunGod team may have relinquished the race leader's jersey and the king of the mountains classification jersey on the Tour of Britain today but the Irish rider has held onto his sprints classification lead.
While there is still a long way to go on this race, Teggart has laid the foundations of a really strong challenge to win the classification after winning six sprints so far; taking all three on stage 1 and doing the stage again on stage 2, both performances from breakaways. Today's 149.5km stage from Redcar to Helmsley was a different race, with the main field splitting as Ineos Grenadiers pushed on when the road kicked up.
None of Teggart's main rivals for the sprints classification jersey scored points at the three intermediate gallops today, with an early breakaway move mopping up the first sprint and then the winning escape sharing the points at the final two sprints.
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It meant while Teggart did not score today, he remains atop the classification with 18 points, with his nearest rival, his team mate Ben Perry, 2nd on eight points. If the Irishman could get into another breakaway he may only need to add to his tally a little more to win the classification outright.
Today's stage 4 finally saw the race split to the pieces and the general classification men impose themselves in a way that resulted in significant time gaps.
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Ineos Grenadiers were clearly riding for Tom Pidcock, racing on home roads in Yorkshire. The British rider pressed hard on the climb of Carlton Bank with 30km remaining and pulled clear with Dylan Teuns (Israel-Premier Tech) and young British rider Oscar Onley, who was stepping up from Team DSM's development team to the World Tour squad for this race.
While they looked like a strong group, and tried to press on, the remains of the peloton got organised and closed them down; Movistar, Great Britain and Trinity Racing all active in the chase. However, though the breakaway was caught, Pidcock was again forcing the pace on Newgate Bank - an uncategorised climb some 140km into the stage.
At that point - with time bonuses on offer at the intermediate sprint at the top of the ascent - the winning move went clear. Pidcock was there were his team mate Omar Fraile as well as Teuns again and Movistar's Gonzalo Serrano.
While they only had a small gap on what remained of the peloton, they proved too strong for the chasers. On the uphill finish it was Serrano who narrowly beat Pidcock to win the stage with Teuns in 3rd and Fraile 4th. Mathijs Paasschens (Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB) won the sprint from the 35-rider bunch, for 5th place, some 13 seconds after the stage winner crossed the line.
The stage result and time bonuses have put Serrano into the leader's jersey, with leader today Perry finishing in the group at 13 seconds. Serrano now leads by seven seconds from Pidcock who is on the same time as Fraile and Perry in 3rd and 4th.
Ireland's Rory Townsend, who has been suffering from stomach issues on the race, and his WiV-SunGod team mate Teggart finished in 69th and 70th in a group at 15:43. Tomorrow's stage 5 takes the riders 186.8km from West Bridgford to Mansfield, with the absence of major climbs perhaps making it one for a Teggart breakaway.
