Dagenkolb Wins Criterium du Dauphine Stage 4

Last updated : 09 June 2011 By Kev Monks

John Dagenkolb won the fourth stage of the Criterium du Dauphine today.

This was a 173.5km stage from La Motte-Servolex to Mâcon and took place on a day where all the cycling talk was about the future of the HTC Highroad Team and where Mark Cavendish would end up if HTC Team owner Bob Stapleton does not get a major backer for next season.

On the road,  Jeremy Roy (FDJ) and Adriano Malori (Lampre-ISD) were away up the road, some 3:40 ahead of a peloton which contained race leader Bradley Wiggins who had vowed to fight all the way to the finish of the race on Sunday.

As the race got into Mâcon, the escapees were finally caught with 2.1kms to go.

Team Garmin and Team Sky lead out the bunch sprint but it was HTC Highroad's John Dagenkolb who took the victory ahead of Edvald Boasson Hagen in a time of 4hr 15 mins and 41 seconds. JJ Haedo was third.

"If you get one stage win in a  tough race like this, it's pretty good, so taking three in a row is pretty amazing," said HTC-Highroad sports director Brian Holm, "John's confidence was really high after he took that uphill sprint against some real specialists in that kind of finish."

"So we kept it under control in the last few kilometers, putting a couple of guys on the front, with Jan Ghyselinck and Gatis Smukulis keeping the pace high."

"There are some big name sprinters here and to tell the truth I wasn't too sure if John'd be able to match them on the flat as well as he had on the uphill."

"But it seems like we've got a guy who's got a little bit of Erik Zabel in him and a little bit of Mark Cavendish, and he did absolutely fine."

Wiggins stays in yellow and blue ahead of Cadel Evans by a minute and 11 seconds.

Tomorrow is the longest stage of the race and is 210kms long. It is from Parc des Oiseaux - Villars-les-Dombes  to Les Gets.