Giacomo Nizzolo (RadioShack-Nissan) became the third leader of the 2012 Tour de Wallonie in as many days, after his victory in stage three between Marche en Famenne and Beaufays. The 23-year-old Italian was fastest to the line in a crash-marred sprint at the end of another stage peppered with attacks and breakaways. Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha) finished second, with Gianni Meersman (Lotto-Belisol) third, as many of the race’s big sprinters found their path to the line blocked.
Time bonuses on the line gave the RadioShack-Nissan rider the race lead.
"I'm very, very happy with this win,” said Nizzolo. “I was a bit angry yesterday, because I positioned badly in the sprint. The sensation in the legs was good, so I knew I had the shape to do something. The team was amazing today. Jakob [Fuglsang] kept on telling me I had to go as hard as I could on the last climbs, because it could end up in a sprint."
The 185.9km Liège-Bastogne-Liège style stage - which featured such climbs as the Côte de Wanne, the Col de Stockeu, the Côte de la Vecquée and the Mont Theux - was dominated by a 14-man breakaway, which escaped the peloton in the early kilometres.
David Boucher (FDJ-BigMat), Maartijn Maaskant (Garmin-Sharp), Marco Haller (Katusha), Kenny Dehaes (Lotto-Belisol), Francesco Chicchi (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Laurent Didier (Radioshack-Nissan), Pim Ligthart (Vacansoleil-DCM), Claudio Corioni (Acqua & Sapone), Maxime Anciaux, Antoine Demoitié, Loic Pestiaux and Boris Vallée (all Idemasport-Biowanze), Sébastien Delfosse (Landbouwkrediet-Euphony), Sébastien Chavanel (Europcar) and Tom Dernies (Wallonie-Bruxelles-Crédit Agricole) managed to slowly build a lead over the chasing peloton, which reached a maximum of 3’17” after 85km.
Gradually, however, mostly under the impetus of Team Sky and BMC Racing, the gap began to close in the second half of the stage. Ligthart and Didier attacked the rest, and managed to get away just before the Stockeu with 70km to go, the peloton was not far behind them by now, and they were joined by Grégory Habeaux (Accent Jobs-Willems Vérandas) et Tim Wellens (Lotto- Belisol) with 40km to go. The peloton pulled all four riders back shortly afterwards however, which led to a series of counterattacks.
The early attackers included Danilo Di Luca (Acqua & Sapone), Nelson Oliveira (Radioshack-Nissan), then Di Luca’s teammate Carlos Betancur, but it was Alexandr Kolobnev (Katusha), Jelle Wallays (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator), Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) and Ben Hermans (Radioshack-Nissan) that managed to get away.
Most of the group was pulled back, but Hermans was then joined by Betancur, Pieter Serry (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator) and Zdenek Stybar (Omega Pharma-Quick Step). This attack was not to last long either, and the peloton was apparently headed for a sprint.
With French champion and race leader Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ-BigMat) having abandoned the race, however, his teammate Rémi Pauriol had other ideas and attacked in the final two kilometres. The Frenchman was pulled back by the sprinters teams, but a crash in the finishing straight brought down a number of riders, including Ligthart, Pieter Jacobs (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator), Garcia Echeguibel (Cofidis), Michel Kreder (Garmin-Sharp) and Michael Barry (Sky); Barry was the worst affected, fracturing his arm as he came down.
Nizzolo won the dash for the line, and took over the race lead; despite crossing the line on foot however, former Dutch champion Ligthart was tied on time with the Italian, with Ignatiev just one second further back in third.