Conor Dunne has gone on the attack and carved out a lead in the climbers' classification. Can he hold it tomorrow during the queen stage at the 4 Jours de Dunkerque?

Irish cyclist Conor Dunne flying in 4 Jours de Dunkerque

While Sam Bennett was taking Ireland’s first Giro stage win for 31 years, Conor Dunne was flying the Aqua Blue Sport flag in France.

The Irish rider went into today’s fourth stage of the 4 Jours de Dunkerque leading the climbers’ classification.

And after 172.5km from Dainville to Mont Saint-Eloi he is still on top in that competition.

The 26-year-old now goes into tomorrow’s queen stage knowing it’s a huge day for him.

Unlike the previous two stages, Dunne was not a member of the stage-long breakaway today.

Instead, his team mate Lasse Norman Hansen got up the road. And emulating Dunne 24 hours earlier, the Dane set about collecting climbers' points.

And it means Dunne still leads the competition, on 18 points, with Hansen now second on 15.

Hansen was clear for most of the stage today with Julien Duval (AG2R La Mondiale) and Jonas Rickaert (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise).

They pulled out a lead of over three minutes. And while they took climbing and sprint points, as well as bonus seconds, they were reeled in by the sprinters’ teams.

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Hansen in the breakaway for Aqua Blue Sport. Coquard wins today having already placed 2nd and 3rd on stages.

The stage was won by Bryan Coquard (Vital Concept)  from Jasper de Buyst (Lotto Soudal) and Wouter Wippert (Roompot).

For his efforts Coquard re-claimed the race lead from Timothy Dupont (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) with two stages remaining.

Tomorrow is the queen stage; some 178km from Wormhout to Cassel with eight categorised climbs.

Dunne will have to try and collect some points along the way and hope the other results on the hills go his way.

There are just two climbs on Sunday’s final stage meaning if Dunne still leads tomorrow he has a great chance of winning the classification in this UCI 2.HC race.

For his part, Hansen has moved up the general standings thanks to the time bonuses he picked up today.

And now the 2012 Olympic omnium champion is 7^th overall, just 13 seconds off the race lead.

Having been full of aggression so far in this race, Aqua Blue Sport has plenty to ride for during the two stages to come this weekend.

Irish fans will be willing on Dunne to hold his jersey against quality WorldTour and ProContinental opposition.