Our squad recorded a top-three result for the fourth consecutive day.
Stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse (Gansingen – Gstaad) featured a short second-category climb, but its presence in the final together with the hard tempo pushed by some teams and the nagging rain were enough for the sprinters to be dislodged. At the same time, the peloton was on a clear mission to absorb the last surviving members of the original breakaway, who crested the ascent 40 seconds clear of a group that numbered some 60-odd riders.
On the sinuous descent to Gstaad, Nans Peters (AG2R) built a gap on Christopher Juul-Jensen (Mitchelton-Scott), only to be caught and dropped by the Dane with four kilometers to go, just before entering on the first of the two closing laps. Separated by eight seconds from the severely reduced bunch, Juul-Jensen managed to hold off the chasers and took a solo victory, ahead of Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb).
Dwars door Vlaanderen champion Yves Lampaert was one of the three Quick-Step Floors riders in the yellow jersey group and put in an impressive sprint at the end of the 189km-long leg-sapping stage, taking a well-deserved third for our team's 39th podium at World Tour level this season. Teammate Enric Mas retained his tenth place in the general classification ahead of the race's first mountain top finish.
"The stage was very hard and the tempo was really high on the climb, but that wasn't enough to bring back the breakaway, which was strong. The plan at the start of the day was to work for Fernando, but after he got dropped on the ascent I got the chance to sprint, so I grabbed it with both hands and I am happy for having done such a good sprint with so many important names in the mix", Yves Lampaert explained after his second podium of the year.
Photo credit: ©Heinz Zwicky/ Getty Images
