The Tour of Slovakia saw a huge upset on stage 4, as the breakaway held off the peloton in a hugely dramatic finale, with Erik Fetter (United Shipping) pulling off a memorable victory.
With a largely flat near-200km route, Saturday’s stage was widely predicted to end in a bunch sprint and, most likely, a third stage victory for Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep).
However, the Frenchman had to settle for third place as he flew from a peloton that was sprinting almost directly behind the day’s five-man breakaway. He tore past three of them, but it was too little too late, and as he crossed the line Fetter already had his hands in the air on the other side of it.
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“I can’t believe it,” Fetter said. “It was such long day, I was in the breakaway on the longest stage, 200km, we were five riders, it was incredibly hard, but we could make it and I won so I can’t believe it.”
Fetter was part of the day’s five-man breakaway alongside Anze Skok (Kolesarski Klub Novo Mesto), Max Nielsen (Lucky Sport), Filippo Agostinacchio (Biesse-Carrera-Premac), and Kacper Maciejuk (Voster Team).
They managed to open a maximum advantage of four minutes, which, despite the strength of the peloton, gave them a fighting chance, which they capitalised upon as they took a one-minute lead into the final 5km.
Agostinacchio kicked off hostilities in the final 2km with a solo move that almost came off, but he was caught inside the final kilometre, where Fetter launched from the wheel of Nielsen and stormed clear.
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It was edge-of-your seat stuff as the peloton advanced behind and Magnier opened the taps. But it was futile in the end from the Frenchman, as Fetter celebrated a huge triumph.
“Honestly, when we had a four-minute gap I was like ‘it’s not bad’, because we were working together really well, really fast and strong, so I was like ‘if we keep it like this it will be really hard for the bunch to get four minutes on us, so I was believing a bit but when we reached the finish line that was the moment I realised we’d made it – I’d made it.”
Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Intermarché) retained the overall lead, despite being caught the wrong side of a late split in the peloton. The Belgian finished in the second group, as did Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis), who was forced to cede his second place on GC to Valentin Hofer (Bahrain Victorious Development).
With five seconds between the groups, Van Eetvelt’s overall lead, now over Hofer, has been cut to just one second ahead of the all-important race-ending summit finish on stage 5 on Sunday.
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Results
|
Position |
Rider (Team) |
Time |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Erik Fetter (Team United Shipping) |
4:21:42 |
|
2 |
Anže Skok (Kolesarski Klub Novo Mesto) |
,, |
|
3 |
Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) |
,, |
|
4 |
Kacper Maciejuk (Voster Team) |
,, |
|
5 |
Max Nielsen (Lucky Sport Cycling Team) |
,, |
|
6 |
Matteo Milan (Groupama – FDJ United) |
,, |
|
7 |
Dominik Neuman (ATT Investments) |
,, |
|
8 |
Jenthe Biermans (Cofidis) |
,, |
|
9 |
Giacomo Villa (Biesse – Carrera – Premac) |
,, |
|
10 |
Thomas Capra (Bahrain Victorious Development Team) |
,, |
General classification
|
Position |
Rider (Team) |
Time |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Intermarché) |
17:25:04 |
|
2 |
Valentin Hofer (Bahrain Victorious Development Team) |
0:00:01 |
|
3 |
Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis) |
0:00:04 |
|
4 |
Giacomo Villa (Biesse – Carrera – Premac) |
0:00:05 |
|
5 |
Axel Källberg (Lucky Sport Cycling Team) |
,, |
|
6 |
Maxime Decomble (Groupama – FDJ United) |
,, |
|
7 |
Leonardo Consolidani (Bahrain Victorious Development Team) |
0:00:10 |
|
8 |
Yann Dubois (Groupama – FDJ United) |
,, |
|
9 |
Liam Slock (Lotto Intermarché) |
,, |
|
10 |
Jakub Kaczmarek (Voster Team) |
,, |