Tour of Britain: Van der Poel wins stage 4 in Kendal

Image 1 of 15

Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon-Circus) showed he is on form for the rapidly approaching World Championships in Yorkshire, winning the hilly stage 4 of the Tour of Britain to Kendal with a powerful, unequalled, uphill sprint.

The multi-talented cyclo-cross world champion surged past a late breakaway trio and then stomped on the pedals to distance all his rivals and celebrate with his arms in the air. Van der Poel managed to open a three-second gap at the finish line, with Jasper de Buyst (Lotto Soudal) taking second and Australia's Simon Clarke (EF Education First) third.

Matteo Trentin and his Mitchelton-Scott team did everything they could to control the late attacks but Trentin could not respond when van der Poel opened up his effort with three hundred metres to go and finished ninth.

Thanks to the ten-second stage winner's time bonus and his three-second advantage; van der Poel took the leader's green jersey from the Italian. Trentin is one second behind, with De Buyst third at seven seconds.

Thursday's 14.4km individual time trial near Pershore in South West England will now be vital in deciding the overall classification of the Tour of Britain.

Van der Poel slumped over his bike after his huge effort but soon began to celebrate with his teammates.

"It was a bit of gamble because I didn't really know where the finish line was," he explained.

"I got bumped in yesterday and I didn't want that to happen again today, so I went full gas 300 metres to go. It was a bit far but got I got a gap and the final 100m was a bit easier, so the gap was big enough to keep it to the finish.

"It's really nice to win this stage. It was a really, really hard stage, with lots of climbing. I think my team did it perfect; we controlled with Matteo Trentin's guys and then at the end, Otto Vergaerde did an amazing job to get leaders back just in time for me to do my sprint."

How it happened

The 173.2km stage across northern England from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Kendal was always going to an important battleground for overall victory, with the sprinters knowing the constant short and steep climbs would spark a selection and force them to suffer on the country roads.

The first attacks were quickly pulled back when the flag dropped but then the peloton let Axel Domont (AG2R La Mondiale) and Dylan Van Baarle (Team Ineos) go clear. They worked hard to open a gap and then Eddie Dunbar jumped across to give Team Ineos extra horsepower in an interesting attack from the British WorldTour team. That forced Mitchelton-Scott to lead the chase in defense of Trentin's green jersey but used up two of the Team Ineos riders.

The English hills are never long but they are often steep and the road surfaces are grippy, making for hard racing. Dunbar found out the hard way when he blew up and was dropped 60km to go.

Van Baarle tried to go away alone as Domont also faltered but he was caught at the foot of the steep and exposed Gawthorp climb with 34km to go. The speed was high and a series of attacks ignited the racing and split the peloton. Ben Hermans (Israel Cycling Academy) was the first to the top of the climb on the exposed moor and pushed on as a group formed around him. Pavel Sivakov was there for Team Ineos after some surges by Gianni Moscon and other quality riders eventually came together to create a front group of 40 riders.

Trentin had three teammates to help control the attacks in a tactically thrilling final. However, Tony Gallopin (AG2R La Mondiale) got away alone with 17km to go and was joined by former Lotto Soudal rider James Shaw (Swift Carbon) and Hermans.

They gradually carved out a gap of 15 seconds as Mitchelton-Scott were left to lead the chase. However, the uphill finish in central Kendal was going to hurt the trio and they quickly lost a few seconds in the final kilometre after giving their all to stay away.

As the gradient began to bite and the road curved right, Van der Poel made his move, stomping on the pedals as if he was on a sandy climb in a cyclo-cross race. It was early but his rivals had no answer, allowing the Dutchman to win alone and take the race lead.

Stage Results

Overall Standings