Christopher Juul-Jensen wins fourth stage of the Tour de Suisse

On Tuesday’s fourth stage of the Tour de Suisse, Mitchelton-Scott’s Dane Christopher Juul Jensen, the last escapee to survive an all-day breakaway in the rain, triumphed on in airfield in Gstaad. It was Jensen’s first victory since 2015. BMC’s Stefan Küng finished in the drenched peloton to keep his leader’s jersey.

#TourdeSuisse Chris Juul-Jensen stays away solo to take the fourth stage victory!!! Well done Chris! pic.twitter.com/mG2WDioVQD

— Mitchelton-SCOTT (@MitcheltonSCOTT) June 12, 2018

The Course

The profile of Tuesday’s stage started more or less flat and then rose gradually from the 140-km mark. The Cat. 2 climb that crested 9-km from the finish in Gstaad was 7.2-km of 4.6 percent and would eliminate some of the sprinters, but not all. The finish would come on an airfield. After a soggy Monday more rain lashed the racers.

Stage 4 of the #tourdesuisse is underway. A second-category climb should make for some exciting racing today in the final kilometers. pic.twitter.com/016c1KoXwI

— Deceuninck-QuickStep (@deceuninck_qst) June 12, 2018

The Breakaway

Six riders including Juul-Jensen and Swiss champion Silvan Dillier (AG2R) skipped away early and rolled up a 6:00 gap after 45-km. Predictably, the team of the race leader did most of the pace-making in the field, but Quick Step and Bora-Hansgrohe pitched in to bring the escape’s lead under 6:00 with 75-km remaining.

??#tourdesuisse
into the last 50k gap is down to 4:10. #BORAhansgrohe pulling in the bunch with BMC and Quick-Step. pic.twitter.com/3tQRNAnWyh

— BORA – hansgrohe (@BORAhansgrohe) June 12, 2018

With 37-km and the Cat. 2 Saanenmöserstrasse climb still to come the gap was 3:30 as the rain continued to tip down.

Finale

Sunweb and Bahrain-Merida took control of the reduced peloton on the climb as the breakaway fragmented and drew closer. There was nowhere for Jensen and a remaining breakmate to hide on the air strips, but the 64-strong group couldn’t bring the remaining fugitive to heel. Sunweb’s Michael Matthews was runner-up and Dwars door Vlaanderen winner Yves Lampaert placed third.

Wednesday’s 155-km fifth stage finishes on a long climb of medium grade.

2018 Tour de Suisse Stage 4
1) Christopher Juul Jensen (Denmark/Mitchell-Scott) 4:35:56
2) Michael Matthews (Australia/Sunweb) +0:08
3) Yves Lampaert (Belgium/Quick Step) s.t.

2018 Tour de Suisse GC
1) Stefan Küng (Switzerland/BMC) 13:26:19
2) Greg van Avermaet (Belgium/BMC) +0:03
3) Richie Porte (Australia/BMC) s.t.