Nicolas Roche was in the top 10 again today and if the yellow jersey is forced to ride to defend his lead, Saturday's climbing epic may play into the Irish man's hands (Photo: Larry Hickmott – VeloUK.net)
After changing hands on each of the first three stages, the Tour of Britain yellow jersey remains on the shoulders of Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) this evening, after a day in which the early escape finally succeeded.
Nicolas Roche was again in the top 10 and remains within striking distance of yellow with some big climbing challenges to come on Saturday ahead of Sunday morning’s crucial time trial.
The stage 4 victor today after 177km from Exmouth to Exeter was Austrian Matthias Brandle, riding on the IAM Cycling team.
He spent most of the stage up the road with Andreas Stauff (MTN), Maarten Wynants (Belkin) and Shane Archbold (An Post-Chainreaction).
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Despite working well, they only ever enjoyed a maximum lead of three minutes. And with some of the biggest team's in the race contributing to the work on the front of the bunch, the breakaway looked doomed.
However, just as the main field left it very late to close down yesterday's breakaway, the men up front today still had two minutes of their advantaged with 15km remaining today.
Austrian Matthias Brandle, riding on the IAM Cycling team, grabbed his chance with both hands today, taking a great stage 4 win into Exeter (Photo: Larry Hickmott – VeloUK.net)
The presence of the cat 2 Stoke climb inside the final 10km was always going to work against the breakaway.
And when the main field hit that ascent with just over 5km to go, the escapee's lead had halved to one minute, with Team Sky, Roche's Tinkoff-Saxo and race leader Kwiatkowski's Omega Pharma-QuickStep all present on the front.
But Brandle had the legs to go all the way and attacked the breakaway to solo to the line for what was a great win.
Archbold hung on for second place; the Kiwi fast man, Commonwealth Games track champion and former World Track Championships silver medallist missing out by eight seconds on adding a 2014 stage win to the stage 5 victory Sam Bennett took for the squad here last year.
On the same time as Archbold, Wynants came home in 3rd, though the fourth man in the escape Stauff found the pace too hot to handle in the finale and was caught by the peloton.
Just six seconds behind Archbold and Wynants, Sonny Colbrelli (Bardiani CSF) led in that depleted main field for 4th from Ben Swift (Team Sky) and Rick Zabel (BMC).
Archbold rode a great race; getting up the road early. And while beaten for the win, he hung on well for 2nd on the day (Photo: Larry Hickmott – VeloUK.net)
The race leader was 7th, with Roche just behind him in 9th; clearly closely marking the Pole in a race that looks set to be won by only seconds when it ends on Sunday.
There were just 35 men in the group containing the main favourites.
And while the road to Exeter will not go down as one of the finest moments in the fledgling professional career of Irish national road champion Ryan Mullen, the An Post-Chainreaction rider put in a decent ride against heavy hitting opposition in a 2.HC ranked race.
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He finished in a small group halfway down the field and some 1:56 off the winner’s time.
It was a performance that suggests he is perhaps only one more season off making his mark on this stage.
Mullen's team mate, Jack Wilson is nursing some injuries from a crash earlier in the week and came home 3:50 down. The only other Irish rider in the race, Sam Bennett is struggling with illness, as he revealed in his Tour of Britain Diary earlier today.
The NetApp-Endura rider finished last man today, 6:29 in arrears.
Tomorrow's stage 6 takes the riders 206km from Bath to Hemel Hempstead, with two cat 2 climbs in the last third of the stage and one cat 3 with 17km remaining.
Saturday sees the field race between Camberley and Brighton; the 225.km trek featuring the cat 2 Beachy Head after 162km followed by the infamous cat 1 Ditchling Beacon at 207km and the Bear Road cat 1 at 219km, just 6km from the finish.
It may be a stage where Roche has a big say, especially if Kwiatkowski and his team are forced to do a lot of riding tomorrow and early on Saturday in defence of his yellow jersey.
There follows an 8.8km time trial in London on Sunday morning followed by a circuit race consisting of 10 laps of the same TT loop in the afternoon.
It will be interesting to see how TT specialist Mullen performs on Sunday morning and how Bennett can do before the race ends, though illness may be nudging him towards an early exit.
An Post-Chainreaction's Mark McNally has ridden superbly well so far; getting into two breakaways to build a huge lead in the climbers' classification and picking up more points today behind the four-man escape (Photo: Larry Hickmott – VeloUK.net)
Stage 4: Exmouth to Exeter 177.3km
1 Matthias Brandle (Aut) IAM Cycling 4:32:03
2 Shane Archbold (NZl) An Post-Chainreaction 0:00:08
3 Maarten Wynants (Bel) Belkin Pro Cycling Team
4 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bardiani CSF 0:00:14
5 Ben Swift (GBr) Team Sky
6 Rick Zabel (Ger) BMC Racing Team
7 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Omega Pharma-QuickStep
8 Kevin Ista (Bel) IAM Cycling
9 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Tinkoff-Saxo
10 Jack Bauer (NZl) Garmin-Sharp
11 Albert Timmer (Ned) Team Giant-Shimano
12 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) IAM Cycling
13 Matthieu Boulo (Fra) Team Raleigh
14 Edoardo Zardini (Ita) Bardiani CSF
15 Enrico Battaglin (Ita) Bardiani CSF
57 Ryan Mullen (Irl) An Post-Chainreaction 0:01:56
90 Jack Wilson (Irl) An Post-Chainreaction 0:03:50
114 Sam Bennett (Irl) Team NetApp-Endura 0:06:29
General Classification
1 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Omega Pharma-QuickStep 20:21:50
2 Edoardo Zardini (Ita) Bardiani CSF 0:00:03
3 Dylan Teuns (Bel) BMC Racing Team 0:00:14
4 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Tinkoff-Saxo
5 Jon Izagirre Insausti (Esp) Movistar Team 0:00:23
6 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:27
7 David Lopez Garcia (Esp) Team Sky
8 Leopold König (Cze) Team NetApp-Endura 0:00:29
9 Sébastien Reichenbach (Sui) IAM Cycling
10 Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Movistar Team 0:00:40
11 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) IAM Cycling 0:00:45
12 Dylan Van Baarle (Ned) Garmin-Sharp 0:00:48
13 Jack Bauer (NZl) Garmin-Sharp 0:00:54
14 Steve Lampier (GBr) Giordana Racing Team 0:00:58
15 Jan Barta (Cze) Team NetApp-Endura 0:01:00
97 Ryan Mullen (Irl) An Post-Chainreaction 0:24:35
98 Sam Bennett (Irl) Team NetApp-Endura 0:24:53
112 Jack Wilson (Irl) An Post-Chainreaction 0:41:42
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