Bissegger the victor as breakaway claims Tour de Suisse Stage 4

Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-Nippo) was the strongest in the final kilometres from a four-man breakaway on a quieter day for the peloton at the Tour de Suisse.

Stefan Bissegger of EF Education-Nippo takes Stage 4 at the Tour de Suisse Source: Getty

Bissegger won stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse, beating Benjamin Thomas (Groupama-FDJ) and Joey Rosskopf (Rally Cycling) in a three-up sprint on the Gstaad airfield. The quartet had previously dropped Swiss national team rider Joel Suter, fighting out the final kilometres among themselves after forcing their way clear of the peloton after a 100 kilometre fight to establish the move.

Bissegger was the last to bridge over to the successful move, as the tether to the peloton snapped and the bunch showed little interest in chasing, ultimately rolling to the finish more than five minutes down on the stage winner.

The Swiss rider was aggressive in the finale after shutting down moves on the final climb of the day and forced his rivals to respond by building a gap through the final corners that led onto the Gstaad runway, before hunting down Rosskopf’s final attack. Rosskopf led out the sprint, with Bissegger launching from his wheel. Thomas was unable to come out of the slipstream leaving Bissegger to sit up and salute the win.

“Finally I got a stage win at the Tour de Suisse. I’m really happy with that,” said Bissegger, who added to his Paris-Nice time trial victory earlier in the year. “I would say this one is nicer. This was a normal road stage, and the other one was a time trial, so more for specialists. Both are nice but here in Switzerland it’s maybe even a bit nicer.”

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) finished safely in the reduced peloton to retain the yellow jersey as overall leader of the race, though he's unlikely to keep the race lead as the mountains beckon for the climbers on Stage 5.