Dan Martin rode strongly on the fourth stage of the Tour of Britain, placing sixth on the summit finish of Great Orme in Llandudno in Wales. His Israel Start-Up Nation teammate Michael Woods launched the decisive attack on the steep final climb, drawing Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) clear.
Martin had been further back at the base of the climb and had to chase hard alone to the summit, eventually crossing the line 13 seconds behind. Van Aert drove the pace closer to the top to ensure he took over the race lead, but had enough left to pip Alaphilippe at the line after the world champion appeared to launch his final sprint slightly too soon.
Van Aert ended the day two seconds clear of the previous race leader Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers). Martin improved one place to seventh overall, 56 seconds back. His first cousin Nicolas Roche (Team DSM) finished a solid 10th on the stage and improves by five places overall to 11th.
Thursday’s stage to Warrington includes climbs early on but the flatter second half points to a likely bunch sprint. Martin and Roche will have a better opportunity on Friday’s stage to Gateshead, which has a testing run in to the line.
Tour of Britain (2.Pro)
Stage 4 Aberaeron to Great Orme
1 Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) 210 kilometres 5 hours 4 mins 22, 2 J Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) same time, 3 M Woods (Israel Start-up Nation) at 1, 4 M Honoré (Deceuninck-QuickStep) at 4, 5 E Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) at 8
Irish: 6 D Martin (Israel Start-up Nation) at 13, 10 N Roche (Team DSM) at 29, 44 R Townsend (Canyon dhb SunGod) at 3 mins 40, 76 B Healy (Trinity Racing) at 9 mins 24
General classification after stage 4
1 Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) 14 hours 44 mins 49, 2 E Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) at 2, 3 J Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) at 11, 4 M Honoré (Deceuninck-QuickStep) at 21, 5 M Woods (Israel Start-up Nation) at 40, 6 R Dennis (Ineos Grenadiers) at 44
Irish: 7 D Martin (Israel Start-up Nation) at 56, 11 N Roche (Team DSM) at 1 min 38, 34 R Townsend (Canyon dhb SunGod) at 5 mins 42, 64 B Healy (Trinity Racing) at 18 mins 32
Teams: 1 Ineos Grenadiers 43 hours 35 mins 4, 2 Alpecin-Fenix at 1 min 56, 3 Team DSM at 2 mins 44
Other: 6 Israel Start-Up Nation at 3 mins 27, 10 Canyon dhb SunGod at 7 mins, 13 Trinity Racing at 17 mins 41
