Paul Magnier once again capitalised off of a perfect Soudal-QuickStep lead-out to secure a second victory on stage 4 at the Tour of Britain.
Magnier came off the wheels of his teammates Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe to take the sprint win ahead of Ethan Vernon (Israel-Premier Tech) and Erlend Blikra (Uno-X Mobility) in Newark-on-Trent.
"Yes, for sure," Magnier said when asked if he was enjoying the Tour of Britain after taking two stage wins. "I'm super happy to take the victory again here. It was, again, a super day with the team; first we controlled the race to be sure it finished with a bunch sprint, and in the end, they put me in a good position for the final. It was fast with a tailwind and in the end, I still had the punch to finish off the work of the whole team again."
Overall race leader Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) finished safely in the peloton after leading out his teammate Vernon to second place on the day.
Williams continues to lead the race by 16 seconds ahead of runner-up Oscar Onley (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) and 40 seconds ahead of third-placed Mark Donovan (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) as the race heads into the penultimate stage 5 in Northampton on Saturday.
How it unfolded
The fourth stage at the Tour of Britain was 138.5km from Derby to Newark-on-Trent and another day for the sprinters.
Williams started the day in the overall lead after taking back-to-back wins on stage 2 and stage 3, at 16 seconds ahead of Onley and 41 seconds ahead of Donovan.
Tom Pidcock (Ineos-Grenadiers) was the first to attack, followed by a counter move from a group of ten, but all early efforts to break away were short-lived, particularly given to strong cross-head wind that created an additional challenge.
A breakaway of three managed to snap the elastic band from the peloton at the 125km-to-go mark in the race that included Liam O'Brien (Lidl-Trek Future Racing), Scott McGill (Project Echelon Racing) and Rowan Baker (Saint Piran).
Soudal-QuickStep and Israel-Premier Tech took up the reins at the front of the field to manage the gap to the breakaway, but the trio still held a 1:15 advantage with 50km to go.
When the breakaway was within sight at under 30km remaining, Ineos Grenadiers moved to the front of the peloton, but the gap pushed back out when Baker made a last-ditch attack to stay ahead of the race. A counter move from McGill followed that, but the three reconnected with a 20-second advantage.
O'Brien distanced his breakaway companions at 24km to go, going solo in pursuit of the stage victory. His efforts were short-lived, with all three breakaway riders reabsorbed into the field with 17km out.
Alaphilippe was the first to counter-attack, but Ineos Grenadiers quickly shut down that move. After a flurry of attacks, Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) forced a new breakaway that included Evenepoel, who had been actively following many of the late-race attacks. The dangerous break didn't last long, and they were brought back into the field with 8km to go.
Soudal-QuickStep had the strongest lead-out as the peloton barrelled into the final kilometres of the stage into Newark-on-Trent. DSM-Firmenich PostNL and Israel-Premier Tech also moved toward the front in the final 3km.
Race leader Williams took a long turn on the front to help set up his Israel-Premier-Tech to support Vernon; however, Soudal-QuickStep took over as Evenepoel moved forward with Alaphilppe and then Magnier on his wheel.
Uno-X Mobility led the field under the flamme rouge and into the last few hundred metres of the race, but Israel-Permier Tech's Vernon opened his sprint first.
Magnier reacted quickly, jumping off his teammate Alaphilippe's wheel after being delivered into the perfect position, closing the gap, and crossing the line to take his second stage win at the Tour of Britain.
Results
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