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Paul Magnier once again capitalised off of a perfect Soudal-QuickStep lead-out to secure a second victory on stage 4 at the Tour of Britain.
Magnier came off the wheels of his teammates Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe to take the sprint win ahead of Ethan Vernon (Israel-Premier Tech) and Erlend Blikra (Uno-X Mobility) in Newark-on-Trent.
“Yes, for sure,” Magnier said when asked if he was enjoying the Tour of Britain after taking two stage wins. “I’m super happy to take the victory again here. It was, again, a super day with the team; first we controlled the race to be sure it finished with a bunch sprint, and in the end, they put me in a good position for the final. It was fast with a tailwind and in the end, I still had the punch to finish off the work of the whole team again.”
Overall race leader Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) finished safely in the peloton after leading out his teammate Vernon to second place on the day.
Williams continues to lead the race by 16 seconds ahead of runner-up Oscar Onley (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) and 40 seconds ahead of third-placed Mark Donovan (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) as the race heads into the penultimate stage 5 in Northampton on Saturday.
How it unfolded
The fourth stage at the Tour of Britain was 138.5km from Derby to Newark-on-Trent and another day for the sprinters.
Williams started the day in the overall lead after taking back-to-back wins on stage 2 and stage 3, at 16 seconds ahead of Onley and 41 seconds ahead of Donovan.
Tom Pidcock (Ineos-Grenadiers) was the first to attack, followed by a counter move from a group of ten, but all early efforts to break away were short-lived, particularly given to strong cross-head wind that created an…
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