Mark Renshaw's furious sprint netted him the fourth stage in the Tour of Denmark, ahead of teammate Matthew Goss. The HTC-Columbia duo sprinted so hard that only Alex Rasmussen and Theo Bos finished within the same time. The rest of the peloton was two seconds adrift on the short 100km morning stage from
Nyborg to Odense, raced at an average speed of almost 47km/h.
Renshaw is usually known as the lead-out man for Mark Cavendish. In Odense he showed that he can hold his own in a sprint. It was Renshaw's first race since his Tour de France qualification for impeding other riders. In stage 11 from Sisteron to Bourg-lès-Valence he head-butted Julian Dean, then swerved hard into the way of Tyler Farrar. Today, he cleanly won the sprint, unimpacted by a crash in the final 200 meters. It was former race leader Michael Van Stayen (Topsport-Vlaanderen) who came down near the end.
HTC Columbia was as dominating in today' sprint as the Danish Saxo Bank team in the overall defense. Matti Breschel still leads teammate Jakob Fuglsang by ten seconds, with Joost Van Leijen (Vacansoleil) in third at 29 seconds. Goss, the winner of stage 1, is ahead in the points classification, with Michael Tronborg Kristensen leading the KOM ranking.
The break of the day formed after 12km, with Niki Østergaard (Glud & Marstrand-LRØ Consulting), Kasper Schjønnemann (Concordia Insurance Himmerland), Christian Ranneries (Energy Fyn) and Belgian Thomas De Gendt (Topsport Vlaanderen). The maximum gap was three minutes after 37kilometers, but with the short stage, HTC Columbia and Saxo Bank soon put the pressure on.
After 62 kilometers the break's gap was down to two minutes and the quartet was caught well before the finish.
Tonight's 19.4 km time trial should clear things up even more. Will Jakob Fuglsang be able to make it three in a row? The 2008 and 2009 overall winner is motivated to pass his teammate Breschel on the penultimate day of the race.
Results stage 4
1. RENSHAW, Mark THR 2.07'18" 6"
2. GOSS, Matthew Harley THR 2.07'18" 4"
3. RASMUSSEN, Alex SAX 2.07'18" 2"
4. BOS, Theo CTT 2.07'18"
5. LIGTHART, Pim VAC 2.07'20" 2"
6. DE NEGRI, Pier Paolo ISD 2.07'20" 2"
7. MODOLO, Sacha COG 2.07'20" 2"
8. VAN HUMMEL, Kenny Robert SKS 2.07'20" 2"
9. GARDEYN, Gorik VAC 2.07'20" 2"
10. HESTER, Marc DEN 2.07'20" 2"
11. BRESCHEL, Matti SAX 2.07'20" 2"
Overall classification after stage 4
1. BRESCHEL, Matti SAX 14.36'45"
2. FUGLSANG, Jakob SAX 14.36'55" 10"
3. VAN LEIJEN, Joost VAC 14.37'14" 29"
4. FIRSANOV, Sergey DBW 14.37'23" 38"
5. FLORENCIO CABRE, Xavier CTT 14.37'23" 38"
6. DE KORT, Koen SKS 14.37'26" 41"
7. TUFT, Svein GRM 14.37'26" 41"
8. VANMARCKE, Sep TSV 14.37'26" 41"
9. MORTENSEN, Martin VAC 14.37'30" 45"
10.GULDHAMMER, Rasmus THR 14.37'33" 48"