Luis Leon Sanchez sprinted in the same style he did yesterday to claim back-to-back stage wins at the 2012 edition of the Tour of Romandie. After winning stage 3 and claiming the time bonuses, he started the day just 1 second behind Bradley Wiggins (Sky Procycling), Sanchez now leads Wiggins in the overall classification by nine seconds going into the final time trial after winning the 4th stage.
The Spanish National Time Trial Champion started a 38 man group sprint at approximately 300 meters from the line. After three category 1 climbs and 1 category 2 ascent none of Sanchez's rivals could find the power in their legs to overpower the Spaniard. Behind Sanchez, Rinaldo Nocentini of AG2R La Mondiale placed second in the sprint with Branislau Samoilau (Movistar) finishing 3rd. Race leader Bradley Wiggins finished within in the first group, finishing 18th out of 38.
A six man breakaway got away early into the stage, the break featured: Eduard Vorganov and Petr Ignatenko of Katusha, Jorge Azanza (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Johann Tschopp (BMC Racing Team), Jean-Christophe Peraud (AG2R La Mondiale) and Guillaume Levarlet (Saur-Sojasun). For quite some time breakaway's advantage stood still at 2 minutes, 38 seconds, but eventually the six men were able to push the lead out to a high point of nearly 4 minutes.
As the six man group's lead reached nearly four minutes, Bradley Wiggins's team began to speed up the peloton's tempo, bringing the gap down to 1:20 with only 70 km left to race. However in the closing kilometer Team Sky could not finish off the work done by the team earlier in the stage, with Sanchez claiming the stage win and overall lead.
Looking into tomorrow's stage, the race concludes with a 16.5 kilometer individual time trial in and around Crans-Montana. The stage should bring a final battle between the Spanish National Time Trial Champion, Luis Leon Sanchez, and former British National Time Trial Champion, Bradley Wiggins, for the final overall win.
Results
1 Luis Leon SANCHEZ GIL ESP RAB 4:56:13
2 Rinaldo NOCENTINI ITA ALM +0
3 Branislau SAMOILAU BLR MOV +0
4 Gorka VERDUGO MARCOTEGUI ESP EUS +0
5 Paolo TIRALONGO ITA AST +0
6 Pierre ROLLAND FRA EUC +0
7 Andreas KLÖDEN GER RNT +0
8 Cadel EVANS AUS BMC +0
9 Roman KREUZIGER CZE AST +0
10 Fabrice JEANDESBOZ FRA SAU +0
11 Bauke MOLLEMA NED RAB +0
12 Sylvester SZMYD POL LIQ +0
13 Andrew TALANSKY USA GRM +0
14 Thomas ROHREGGER AUT RNT +0
15 Daniel MARTIN IRL GRM +0
Results
1 Luis Leon SANCHEZ GIL ESP RAB 17:36:35
2 Bradley WIGGINS GBR SKY +9
3 Michael ROGERS AUS SKY +16
4 Bauke MOLLEMA NED RAB +18
5 Stef CLEMENT NED RAB +18
6 Andrew TALANSKY USA GRM +20
7 Wilco KELDERMAN NED RAB +20
8 Simon SPILAK SLO KAT +21
9 Rui Alberto FARIA DA COSTA POR MOV +22
10 Tiago MACHADO POR RNT +22
11 Branislau SAMOILAU BLR MOV +23
12 Steve MORABITO SUI BMC +23
13 Jerome COPPEL FRA SAU +24
14 Thomas ROHREGGER AUT RN +25
15 Daniel NAVARRO GARCIA ESP SAX +25
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