Up-and-coming Danish cyclist Matti Breschel triumphed in the fourth stage of the Tour of Switzerland, a 195km ride from Biasca to here on Tuesday.
In a small bunch sprint for the finish, Breschel, of the Saxo Bank team, held off Astana’s Maxim Iglinskiy by a wheel rim to snatch the stage victory.
Overnight leader Fabian Cancellara, also of Saxo Bank, handed the race leader’s jersey to Slovenian Tadej Valjavec of the AG2R team, who finished third in the lead group.
Cancellara had led the nine-stage race since winning the opening time trial but he came over the finish 1min 03sec in arrears to drop down the standings.
Valjavec now leads Cancellara’s team-mate Andy Schleck by two seconds in the race’s general classification ahead of Wednesday’s 202km fifth stage from here to Serfaus.
The Tour of Switzerland is a major warm-up race for the three-week Tour de France, which begins in Monaco on July 4.
Stage
1. Matti Breschel (DEN/SAX) 5hr 01min 34sec, 2. Maxim Iglinskiy (KAZ/AST)
at 0sec, 3. Tadej Valjavec (SLO/ALM) s.t., 4. Peter Velits (SVK/MRM) s.t., 5.
Oliver Zaugg (SUI/LIQ) s.t., 6. Andy Schleck (LUX/SAX) s.t., 7. Alexander
Efimkin (RUS/ALM) s.t., 8. Thomas Rohregger (AUT/MRM) s.t., 9. Robert
Kiserlovsky (CRO/FUJ) at 05secs, 10. Filippo Pozzato (ITA/KAT) 1:03
Selected: 18. Cameron Meyer (AUS/GRM) 1:04, 24. Fabian Cancellara (SUI/SAX)
s.t., 122. Chris Sutton (AUS/GRM) 14:31, 124. Stuart O’Grady (AUS/SAX) s.t.,
147. Hilton Clarke (AUS/FUJ) 23:35
General classification
1. Tadej Valjavec (SLO/ALM) 13hr 27min 57sec, 2. Andy Schleck (LUX/SAX) at
02secs, 3. Peter Velits (SVK/MRM) 11, 4. Thomas Rohregger (AUT/MRM) 13, 5.
Oliver Zaugg (SUI/LIQ) 14, 6. Fabian Cancellara (SUI/SAX) 20, 7. Robert
Kiserlovski (CRO/FUJ) 34, 8. Roman Kreuziger (CZE/LIQ) 42, 9. Maxim Iglinskiy
(KAZ/AST) s.t., 10. Andreas Kloden (GER/AST) 45