Warbasse takes the biggest win of his career on stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse

Larry Warbasse (Aqua Blue Sport) took the biggest win of his career on stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse as the American rider outpowered his breakaway partners to win alone atop Villars-sur-Ollon.

After the race had rolled through the heart of Bern, the flag was dropped and immediately riders began to set a fast pace at the front with a number of breakaway attempts quickly pulled back.

Eventually, after 14km, of the 150.2km course, four riders were able to break free from the peloton and began to build up an advantage which had reached almost eight minutes just 20km later.

With the road beginning to rise towards the Col des Mosses, the gap started to fall but, as the race headed over the summit of the category one climb with 30km to go, the three remaining leaders were still five minutes ahead of the peloton.

However, as the main bunch reached the final hors categorie climb to Villars-sur-Ollon, they were dramatically cutting into the advantage of the breakaway which quickly split up on the steeper slopes with Larry Warbasse (AquaBlue Sport) left riding solo at the front.

The first attack from the peloton came with less than 7km to go but BMC reacted quickly with Tejay van Garderen closing the gap before moving to the front with Caruso tucked into his wheel.

A burst of acceleration from Caruso saw a group of six riders go clear before they began to attack one another inside 3km to go.

Up ahead, Warbasse was going under the flamme rouge with an advantage of just under one minute which would ultimately prove to be enough to take the stage win.

As the AquaBlue Sport rider crossed the line, the racing continued behind with Caruso sprinting towards the finish line to take second on the stage, ahead of Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), and move into the overall race lead.

Tour de Suisse 2017 – stage 4 results (Bern – Villars-sur-Ollon):

General classification after stage 4: