Christopher Juul Jensen gave the Mitchelton Scott team yet another reason to smile on Tuesday by clinching a solo win by just a few seconds on the 4th stage of the Tour de Suisse after a long-range breakaway.
The Australian team had a very successful Giro d’Italia in May with Simon Yates wearing the pink jersey for 13 days and the team winning five stages, with Juul Jensen part of their eight-man team.
Juul Jensen had been part of a larger break, but dropped them from 15km out, and held his nerve as the pack homed in on him to clinch a rare victory.
Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) won the bunch sprint for second and Yves Lampaert (Quick-Step Floors) was third at the end of a rainy 189km rolling run.
The results leaves Stefan Kung, who broke his jaw in a fall six weeks ago, in the race leader’s yellow jersey after four stages after his BMC team won the opening team time-trial earlier in the week.
“When we had two minutes at the bottom of the climb, then suddenly the break started to believe that it was actually possible, and, yeah, I’m over the moon,” Juul Jensen said.
“Coming out of a great Giro with Mitchelton-Scott, I felt that I had good form. When [Peters] attacked I just kept him at a relatively close distance, and I could see that he was maybe taking the corners slightly slower than I was, so I was closing the gap, and then I decided to make the most of it before it was too late.
“It was a long three kilometres on the airfield but it was a fantastic feeling, and especially being here in Switzerland with the king of Switzerland, Michael Albasini, on the team. I’m happy for that good result.”
Thursday’s stage takes the peloton up three steep climbs and through a series of chic ski resorts culminating in a summit finish at Leukerbad.
Tour de Suisse 2018 – stage 4 results (Gansingen – Gstaad):
| 1 | Christopher Juul Jensen (Mitchelton-Scott) | 4:35:56 |
| 2 | Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) | +08” |
| 3 | Yves Lampaert (Quick-Step Floors) | ,, |
| 4 | Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 5 | Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) | ,, |
| 6 | Magnus Cort (Astana) | ,, |
| 7 | Enrico Battaglin (LottoNL-Jumbo) | ,, |
| 8 | Michael Albasini (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 9 | Bjorg Lambrecht (Lotto Soudal) | ,, |
| 10 | Jose Goncalves (Katusha-Alpecin) | ,, |
General classification after stage 4:
| 1 | Stefan Küng (BMC) | 13:26:19 |
| 2 | Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) | +03” |
| 3 | Richie Porte (BMC) | ,, |
| 4 | Tejay van Garderen (BMC) | ,, |
| 5 | Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) | +16” |
| 6 | Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) | +17” |
| 7 | Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) | +23” |
| 8 | Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 9 | Gregor Mühlberger (Bora-hansgrohe) | +30” |
| 10 | Enric Mas (Quick-Step Floors) | ,, |
