Despite rough weather in the 188.5km Stage 4 of Tour de Romandie, with several OPQS riders having to abandon among many others in the peloton, Tony Martin saw an opportunity to go for both a stage win and the GC lead on Saturday.
Martin and one other rider attacked with 20km to go and built up a gap of more than 1'15". Martin only trailed race leader Chris Froome (Sky ProCycling) by 29" in the GC going into the stage. However, despite Martin going solo and trying his best, the peloton caught him with 14km to go.
Froome and Simon Spilak attacked and eventually were alone in the lead inside the final 8km, and it came down to those two riders for the stage. Spilak won, Froome was 2nd, and Rui Costa (Movistar Team) was 3rd.
Martin will get another chance for a win in the final 18.7km time trial on Sunday.
