Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) won stage 4 of the Tour de Wallonie after a day of Ardennes racing in the hills south of Liege.
Vacek got away with Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech), Carlos Canal (Movistar) and Natnael Tesfatsion (Movistar) on a late climb and finished seven seconds clear of the chasers.
Vacek then dominated the sprint from the front. He took a ten-second time bonus but Strong took the leader's yellow jersey by a single second ahead of Vacek. Britain's Oliver Knight (Cofidis) is third overall at 14 seconds after his stage 1 win.
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"We wanted to use the team as long as possible. The guys did a perfect job, I could then launch on the last climb. When it's hard for everyone and they're on their limit, it suits me, so then I could win the stage," Vacek explained.
The 163.3km stage from Welkenraedt to Seraing was like a mini-Liège-Bastogne-Liège and included the Col du Rosier, the Côte de la Redoute and the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons.
Vlad Van Mechelen (Bahrain Victorious) and Tom Donnenwirth (Groupama-FDJ) formed the early break the stage and opened a significant gap, often in pouring rain but they were carefully chased down by Lidl-Trek and the peloton.
Van Mechelen stayed clear alone as the hills hurt and on the Roche-aux-Faucons Toon Aerts and Lars Craps (both Lotto) with Vacek Brandon Rivera (Ineos Grenadiers) counter-attacked. They were pulled back as Corbin and Vacek fought for the late intermediate sprint bonus seconds.
Strong took two seconds, virtually overtaking general classification leader Oliver Knight (Cofidis) but Vacek was also a threat.
When Van Mechelen was caught 20 kilometres from the finish, there was another bonus sprint battle. Vacek took three seconds, while hurting his rivals in the peloton.
Lidl-Trek rode hard to set-up Vacek on the final climb and his attack dragged a small group clear.
Only Strong, Tesfatsion and Canal could go with him and they then descended towards Seraing.
Vacek led out and won the sprint to move him to just one second down on Strong in the GC before Wednesday's final stage.
"Tomorrow is another hard stage. I hope to recover well and we go for it again" Vacek said.
"We'll race hard, enjoy it and if we get a GC win, it's perfect. if not Im still happy with my performance and the team. We go all in for it tomorrow."
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