Gonzalo Serrano (Movistar) edged out Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) and Dylan Teuns (Israel Premier Tech) to win stage four of the Tour of Britain from a four-man breakaway.
Serrano had the quickest sprint in the group, after Pidcock’s teammate Omar Fraile (Ineos Grenadiers) led them out in the final kilometre.
Benjamin Perry (WiV SunGod) finished in a reduced peloton, but the leaving quartet’s advantage was big enough for Serrano to take the overall lead from him.
“Today is a very good day,” said Serrano at the finish. “The team is incredible.
“In the final, my legs were very good, so I can win. With Pidcock and Teuns, it’s very difficult, but I sprinted for the win.”
On what was a thrilling day of racing with barely a lull in attacks throughout the whole stage, this quartet broke clear on the final climb of the day, Newgate Bank 8km from the finish.
Pidcock and Teuns had already been away earlier in the day along with Oscar Onley (DSM), who were the strongest on the day’s toughest climb, Carlton Bank, about 25km from the finish.
Despite being brought back 15km later by the peloton thanks to work from Serrano’s Movistar team and a brilliant turn from Jake Stewart (Great Britain), they still had the legs to attack with Serrano and Fraile on Newgate Bank.
Stewart once again did his all to bring them back, but without Movistar to assist him this time, and a lack of organisation in the group, was unsuccessful this time.
Having animated the race all day, Ineos do see Fraile and Pidcock move up to second and third overall on GC, but the latter was clearly feeling down after missing out to Serrano in what was a photo finish.
“A little bit disappointed”, he described himself as feeling. “It would have been nice to win.
“We [Ineos Grenadiers] took the race on, and tried to make a difference today. It's difficult when every team looks at us. We're the home team, maybe the strongest team, but there are others here too”
“I thought it was a headwind, but it wasn't”, he explained regarding the sprint. “I didn't rush the gap enough. It’s not the best sprint I did, but whatever.”
How it unfolded
Only 150km long and featuring undulating terrain throughout, a shake-up on the GC was expected during stage four of the Tour of Britain.
Perry was immediately put under pressure during a hectic start to the day, as multiple riders attempted to go clear in a prolonged battle to get into the day’s break.
The frantic pace proved too much for some riders, as Ribble Weldtite’s Red Walters and Charlie Tanfield abandoned, joining Luca Coati (Qhubeka), who had not started the stage.
Eventually, after 35km of attacks and counter-attacks, Magnus Sheffiled (Ineos Grenadiers) and Harry Birchill (Saint Piran) managed to get a gap. The bunch weren’t exactly happy to see this duo get up the road, and the attacks kept coming, but they were still clear 10km later at the intermediate sprint, where Sheffield claimed the maximum bonus seconds ahead of Birchill.
Although briefly separated after Birchill lost Sheffield’s wheel for a few kilometres, they were still out front together at the top of the first climb of the day at Robin Hood’s Bay 95km from the finish, where Sheffield again crossed the line ahead of Birchill.
But the peloton again exploded into life on that climb as Sheffield’s teammate Tom Pidcock launched a brutal attack. Only Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) and Thomas Gloag (Trinity Racing) were able to grab his wheel before the top, and behind them the race had been obliterated into multiple small groups.
However, the damage was only temporary, and these groups all reformed back into one big peloton chasing the leading duo.
Uno-X led the newly-reformed peloton, and upped the pace significantly, so that the break’s advantage had been slashed from just under a minute to 25 seconds by the foot of the next climb at Egton Bank, 75km from the finish.
Sheffield and Birchill’s time out front then came to an end as Uno-X went even harder on the climb, using their whole team to set a searing pace to make the catch and drastically thin out the peloton.
Only around 25 riders remained in the peloton by the top (where Bingoal’s Mathijs Paasschens took maximum KOM points); among them Perry, who was just about hanging on at the back.
From that group, Dimitri Peyskens (Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB) attacked 63.5km from the finish, and opened up a gap of about 20 seconds. But his time out front was short-lived, and the peloton brought him back less than 10km later.
At about this time a large chasing group also bridged back up to the peloton, roughly doubling it in size, and prompting a lull in proceedings to what had been unrelenting, full-on racing.
Ineos Grenadiers took control of the race, and upped the pace ahead of an intermediate sprint 33km from the finish. Omar Fraile was first over the line to claim three seconds while Sheffield gained one in third, with Movistar’s Gonzalo Serrano sandwiched between them for two seconds.
But that sprint was a mere phoney war for the real crucial point of the stage’s finale: the Carlton Bank climb, tackled 26km from the finish.
Again it was Ineos Grenadiers led onto the climb, and after the peloton had been strung out, Pidcock launched an attack that only Dylan Teuns, Michael Woods (both Israel-PremierTech), Oscar Onley (Development Team DSM) and Filippo Zana (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè) were able to follow.
By the top, only Onley and Teuns were left with Pidcock, with Teuns taking maximum points.
A frantic chase followed as the leading trio tried to hold off a chasing group, that grew bigger and bigger on the descent as groups came together, among them Perry.
Their lead grew to over 40 seconds, but started plunging after another 20 or so riders joined from behind, and Movistar took up the chase along with Jake Stewart.
With 10km to go, the catch was made, and Movistar’s work meant that Serrano was able to join Pidcock and Teuns when they attacked again on Newgate Bank with Fraile, in what was this time the race-winning move.
Stephen Puddicombe is a freelance writer based in Bristol. He has written for Cyclingnews since 2020, and has covered cycling professionally as a freelancer since 2013, writing for outlets such as Rouleur, Cycling Weekly and Cycle Sport, among other publications. He is the author of The World of the Tour de France, published by Sona Books. Outside of cycling he is a passionate cinephile, and a long-suffering Spurs fan.
