Michal Kwiatkowski of Omega Pharma Quick Step has won the fourth stage of the Tour Of Britain and taken over as the race leader.
Stage Four saw the race back in England with a 184.6km stage from Worcester to Bristol and again all 117 riders started the stage.
Movistar's Alex Dowsett was the first to attack but was soon joined by Lasse Hansen of Garmin-Sharp, Peter Velits of BMC and
Albert Timmer of Giant Shimano and it was Timmer who took the first KOM climb after 13.8kms on the Category 2 climb at Wyche Road.
Kristian House (Rapha Condor), Northey (MGT), Sam Harrison (NFTO), Mark Christian (RAL) and Seb Lander (BMC) caught up to the escapers and they were able to take a 3.45 lead over the peloton led by Edoardo Zardini after his victory on Stage Three on The Tumble.
Dowsett, the former British Time Trial champion, took the first Yodel Sprint of the day at Evesham ahead of Seb Lander who now leads the Sprints competition thanks to the two points he gained.
Lander took the second sprint at Broadway ahead of Dowsett to further increase his lead before Michael Cumings, who was in the break on Stage Three was forced to abandon.
The Danish BMC rider also took the climb at Snowshill and with a lead of 4.05 with 85kms to go, Christian was now the virtual leader on the road, a road which had plenty of spectators lining them.
Dowsett punctured but was soon back on his way with two new wheels but had to expend energy in trying to get back to the escapers before he was pulled back by his team car and told to wait for the peloton who were only 1.17 behind the eight escapers.
The final sprint was at Rangeworthy and with the eight out front, some 2.54 clear, Seb Lander took the full points and the three second time bonus.
With the sprints done, it was all about getting to the finish line. There was 12.3kms left when Lander, Hansen and Timmer went off the front.
Along the Avon Gorge and then Clifton Downs, Belkin led the peloton who were now less than a minute behind.
Timmer attacked on the Bridge Valley climb with 2.2kms left as behind him, Jack Bauer came up with Nicholas Roche also trying to get away from the peloton who had swept up the rest of the escapers.
Bauer and Timmer were on the front going under the flam rouge with Roche in third. It looked like it was out of these two as to who would win but up came Michale Kwaitkowski of Omega Pharma Quick Step to win in 4.19.08 from Timmer, Teuns, Bauer, Izagirre, Roche and Ben Swift.
As Kwiatkowski was only thirteen seconds down, he now takes over the lead thanks to the bonuses with a three second lead over Zardini and sixteen seconds over Dylan Teuns and Nicholas Roche.
Source: DSG
