Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) has sprinted to victory in the fourth stage of the Tour de Suisse as Geraint Thomas crashed out of the race.
With around 32 kilometres to go, the defending Tour de France champ went down in an incident that also saw Astana’s Andrey Zeits hit the deck.
Thomas received medical attention while sitting in the road. He ultimately abandoned the race, as did Zeits, who was loaded into an ambulance on a stretcher.
Yves Lampaert and Michael Mørkøv led Viviani through the final kilometre. As the sprint opened, the Italian champion went down the left while Sagan had to go the long way around a decelerating Mørkøv.
In the end, Elia Viviani brought to an end weeks of frustration, topping Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) and Sagan.
“The guys did an amazing job, noted Viviani. “I’m pretty proud of my team and am happy with this win. It’s been a long time that I’ve not won.
“It’s my first win in the Tour de Suisse, I can be happy with that,” he added. “And it’s a few weeks now to my main goal of the season.”
Peter Sagan maintained his overall lead in the race, with Matthews moving up to second.
— Elia Viviani (@eliaviviani) June 18, 2019
Tour de Suisse 2019 – stage 4 results (Murten – Arlesheim):
| 1 | Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | 3:46:02 |
| 2 | Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 3 | Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 4 | Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 5 | Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 6 | Sep Vanmarcke (EF Education First) | ,, |
| 7 | Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (Dimension Data) | ,, |
| 8 | Ivan Garcia (Bahrain-Merida) | ,, |
| 9 | Stan Dewulf (Lotto Soudal) | ,, |
| 10 | Fabian Lienhard (Switzerland) | ,, |
Tour de Suisse 2019 – general classification after stage 4:
| 1 | Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) | 11:37:28 |
| 2 | Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) | +10” |
| 3 | Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | +15” |
| 4 | Rohan Dennis (Bahrain-Merida) | +16” |
| 5 | Lawson Craddock (EF Education First) | +21” |
| 6 | Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) | +25” |
| 7 | Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) | +32” |
| 8 | Patrick Konrad (Bora-hansgrohe) | +33” |
| 9 | Jonathan Castroviejo (Team Ineos) | +34” |
| 10 | Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) | ,, |
