Tour of Slovakia: Paul Magnier powers to fourth consecutive victory

Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) scored a stunning fourth consecutive victory at the Tour of Slovakia, bringing him up to a total of ten victories for the season. Slovakian national champion Lukáš Kubiš (Unibet Tietema Rockets) finished second for the fourth consecutive stage in a bunch sprint finish on stage 4 of the Okolo Slovenska. Lotto’s Milan Menten finished in third place, rounding out the podium for the second time this week.

With his perfect record intact, Magnier adds another ten bonus seconds to his race lead, taking him 19 seconds clear of Kubiš in second on the GC. He retains the yellow leader’s jersey heading into the fifth and final stage which will define the general classification.

Speaking after the stage, a jubilant Magnier said, "It’s amazing. It was a super fast day, I don’t know the average speed but I think it was really fast. The team did again an amazing job, I cannot be more proud about the team job, and to win again, it’s amazing."

Speaking about his preparation, Magnier stated "I did a lot of big races before here, a lot of WorldTour races, and then I recovered a bit and I think now I’m super motivated, we are here with a really strong team and it worked so I’m really happy."

Finally, Magnier discussed the team's approach heading into the final decisive GC day. "It was not at all in the plan to look for GC," he said 'but now that I have I think 43 seconds lead on the other guys maybe I will try, but we also have Andrea Raccagni, the white jersey, in really good shape so I think we have a few cards to play tomorrow."

The flattest stage of the race, stage 4 took the riders 169.1 kilometres from Vráble to Sládkovicovo, and given his rich vein of form, it was expected to be a straightforward affair for the prodigious Frenchman. No other sprinter had been able to find a way around the 21-year-old up to this point in the race, and Soudal-QuickStep led the peloton defending the yellow jersey of their leader, Magnier, who led the race by dint of the bonus seconds he had accrued over the first three stages.

Despite looking to be a tall order for breakaway success, a determined five-man group struck out in hope more than expectation early on in the stage. Their number included the best-placed rider on GC, Groupama-FDJ Conti’s Oscar Nilsson-Julien, who sat 30 seconds in arrears of his compatriot at the beginning of the day, but added enough bonus seconds at the intermediate sprints to elevate himself into fourth by the close of play.

Nilsson-Julien and his breakaway companions were kept on a tight leash, never enjoying more than a two-minute gap at any point, and with less than 30 kilometres remaining on the stage, the group slimmed to a trio, but maintained a gap of around 1:15 back to the chasing bunch. Soudal-QuickStep were in total control however, and they brought the lead group’s advantage back to just 45 seconds with 20 kilometres to go, and with crosswinds picking up, the Belgian team pushed the pace, and two riders came down in crashes towards the back of the bunch.

Heading onto the finishing circuit, the gap dropped beneath 30 seconds, and it was Visma-Lease a Bike who took over the pace-setting, but the breakaway put up a stern resistance, holding the looming peloton off past the flamme rouge. Finally, though, they were closed down in time for the expected bunch sprint to unfold, the surging sprint lead-outs swamping them with around 800 metres to go.

From there, it was a scramble for Magnier to find his lead-out, but once he had latched onto the wheel of Dries van Gestel, there was no looking back for the Frenchman. He stormed to his fourth consecutive victory with Kubiš once again second, missing out on a fourth opportunity to take a precious victory on home soil. He remains second on GC, with Menten third, ahead of a day which will see the climbers come to the fore as the overall classification is decided.

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