Tour de Suisse 2014 – Stage 4 Preview

By David Hunter

Stage 3 Recap

The final climb turned out to be a real killer on the legs. We had a small bunch left to fight out the glory. First to go was Cadel Evans. He dragged Albasini with him and the Swiss rider led into the last corner, then came Sagan! He surged past Albasini to take a good win. Albasini was 2nd and Henao 3rd. It was the end of the road for Wiggins and Dennis, as they lost big time.

Stage 4 Heiden – Ossingen 160.4km

A day for the sprinters.

Considering the other stages, this is flat! We have two categorised climbs and an uphill finish. The first climb is 2.1km at 4.4% and the second one is 1.5km at 5.5%. These climbs are nothing to worry about.

Although the profile makes the end of the stage look hard, it isn’t very difficult. The road rises gently for the last couple of kilometres, but shouldn’t take the edge off anybody’s sprint.

The main sprinters here are Cavendish, Degenkolb, Sagan and Modolo. Chuck in Goss, Kristoff, Lobato, Swift, Van Poppel, Coquard and Ciolek and we have a number of men with a chance.

Tony Martin has been doing a great job of staying in yellow and this will continue. OPQS arrive with the full sprint train and want to sprint. They will work to make the sprint happen.

None of the other teams arrive with their sprint trains, so it will be very difficult to stop OPQS from leading this out. If that is the case, then Cavendish wins. We saw in California that he is quicker than Degenkolb(only just!).

Modolo will benefit from a messy sprint. He has Richeze to deliver him, but needs to disrupt the trains of others. The others are quick, but not quick enough.

Prediction time…

It has to be Cavendish.

David Hunter

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