Sanchez sprints to second straight victory at Tour de Romandie

Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank) sprinted to his second straight victory at the Tour de Romandie and with the stage winner's time bonus took over the leader's jersey from Bradley Wiggins (Sky).

While stage 4 at the Tour de Romandie was the Swiss race's most mountainous, featuring a trio of category 1 climbs plus a category 2 ascent, nonetheless a group of 38 riders arrived together at the finish in Sion to contest the sprint for stage honours. Sanchez led-out the sprint from approximately 300m and none of his rivals had the power to come around the on-form Spaniard. Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R La Mondiale) finished second, followed by Branislau Samoilau (Movistar) in third. Overnight leader Bradley Wiggins crossed the finish line in the lead group for 18th place.

Sanchez started the stage just one second behind Wiggins on general classification, but with the Spaniard's 10-second stage victory bonus he now leads Wiggins on general classification by nine seconds, with the British champion's Sky teammate Michael Rogers in third overall at 16 seconds with only one stage remaining.

As the peloton rolled out of Bulle at the start of the 184km stage the parcours began to slope upwards almost immediately for the day's first climb, the category one Col de Mosses at 36.5km. While the field was content to ride in tranquilo fashion with an abundance of climbing yet to come, six riders went out on the attack to form the early break: Johann Tschopp (BMC), Eduard Vorganov and Petr Ignatenko (Katusha), Jorge Azanza (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Jean-Christophe Perraud (AG2R La Mondiale) and Guillaume Levarlet (Saur-Sojasun).

Vorganov led the escapees over the Col de Mosses summit and after 50km of racing their advantage over the peloton stood at 2:38. The six-man break managed to extend their lead to nearly four minutes, but as the kilometres ticked by race leader Bradley Wiggins's Sky team upped the tempo in the peloton. As the field negotiated the flat valley roads during the stage's mid-portion in advance of the three categorised climbs in the stage's endgame, the break's lead dropped to 1:20 with 71km remaining.

On the slopes of the day's second category one ascent, the Piste de l'Ours, the break splintered with Tschopp, Ignatenko and Levarlet going clear. Meanwhile, Peter Stetina launched an attack from a dwindling peloton on the climb and was soon joined by Laurens Ten Dam (Rabobank), Rui Costa (Movistar) and Giampaolo Caruso (Katusha). Sky continued to set a steady tempo in the ascent with Michael Rogers at the front, followed by Wiggins and Richie Porte.

Ignatenko crossed the summit with a slight lead over Tschopp while Levarlet fell further back. The remainder of the early break were caught and passed by the four-man chase group on the climb and were absorbed back into the peloton. Ten Dam led the chasers over the summit 1:30 behind Ignatenko while the Sky-led peloton crossed the KOM line 20 seconds later.

In the approach to the day's final climb, the category 1 St-Martin at 160.2km, the two groups off the front consolidated into a seven-man break and with 32km to go their lead stood at 45 seconds.

Soon after beginning the final climb the break once again split up, with Ten Dam, Caruso and Costa leaving their companions behind. Amaël Moinard (BMC) bridged from the peloton, but it was gruppo compatto at the head of affairs with 27.8km to go, four kilometres from the summit.

Europcar's Davide Malacarne took over the pace-making at the head of the field with the Sky trio of Rogers, Wiggins and Porte lined out behind on the Italian's wheel. Two kilometres later Malacarne's teammate Pierre Rolland launched an attack which was immediately marked by John Gadret (AG2R La Mondiale) and Mikel Landa (Euskaltel-Euskadi). As the trio steadily rode away from the field Moinard headed out of the peloton in pursuit accompanied by Simon Spilak (Katusha).

The situation off the front remained fluid in the approach to the KOM, but ultimately Landa and Gadret were joined by Jesus Hernandez (Saxo Bank), Roman Kreuziger (Astana) and Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R La Mondiale) just prior to the summit. Kreuziger led the quintet over the top with the Richie Porte-paced field in hot pursuit 15 seconds in arrears.

The riders now faced a very fast, switchbacked descent of 14.5km, followed by approximately 9km of flat roads into the finishing city of Sion.

The lead group grew to 12 riders on the high-speed descent, including race leader Bradley Wiggins (Sky), with Kreuziger and best young rider Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Barracuda) prominent at the front carving their way through the switchbacks. Wiggins had no teammates in the lead group, but as the road flattened out in the run-in to the finish approximately 26 riders, including Sky's Rogers and Porte for Wiggins, made contact with 7km remaining.

Jesus Hernandez (Saxo Bank) made several attempts to escape the clutches of the peloton, but the lead group remained intact over the final five kilometres setting up another sprint finale amongst general classification contenders.

At the conclustion to stage 4 the top 30 riders overall are separated by only 35 seconds in advance of the final stage: a 16.5km individual time trial which fittingly for the mountainous Swiss stage race has a climb at its midpoint. Sky's time trial stalwarts Bradley Wiggins and Michael Rogers trail Sanchez by nine and 16 seconds respectively, but other strong chrono riders are also near the top of general classification including Stef Clement (Rabobank) and Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Barracuda).

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