Highlights from stage four of the Tour of Britain 2023, held between Sherwood Forest to Newark-on-Trent on Wednesday 6 September.
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00:00 Into Nottinghamshire then for stage four, predominantly 166.6 kilometers from a start in Sherwood Forest to a finish in Newark on Trent.
00:12 And the expectation that once again it should come back for a bunch sprint.
00:17 Olaf Koe extending his lead after stage three in the general classification wearing the red, white and blue leaders jersey with a chance to make it four wins out of four.
00:26 Who would challenge Jumbo Visma and what would the size of the breakaway be when eventually the race was to get underway?
00:33 James Fouché in the black of the King of the Mountains jersey showing his intent straight away to try and get in a move as the early attacks followed.
00:42 The flag drop on kilometer zero, bang on time and for the first 20 kilometers it was an aggressive start with Fouché involved trying to get up the roads.
00:51 The opportunity to add to his tally of King of the Mountains points, two cat three climbs available over the course of the 166.6 kilometers of today's stage.
00:59 A prolonged battle then to form the breakaway of the day but in the end it was Fouché with Abraham Stockmann of TTT Unibet and almost inevitably he was joined by his teammate Harry Tanfield.
01:10 That wasn't it though, there were a number of other teams who tried to get across including Uno-X who were very active in the opening phase of racing.
01:17 Trinity Racing also tried to fire a rider up the roads and repeated attempts by Uno-X to make the breakaway of the day were shut down by a number of teams,
01:27 most notably Jumbo Visma with Nathan Van Hoidonk policing the moves.
01:31 As the time gap grew and then shrank eventually the World Tour teams tried to put a lid on it but not before the Norwegian champion Frederik Dversnes of Uno-X tried a forlorn attempt to try and get clear.
01:42 This time Bora Hansgrohe shutting it down with faith in their sprinter for the day Danny Van Poppel.
01:47 In the meantime though at Kilton Hill James Fouché was able unopposed to take another four points in the King of the Mountains competition.
01:55 The man from Bolton Equites Black Spoke accruing a decent tally of King of the Mountains points at the end of stage four with one more climb still to come.
02:03 At that moment then Jumbo Visma had control of the peloton, let the gap grow to just over two minutes and then started to ride a controlling pace.
02:11 The afternoon sun wore on, there was no wind to speak of on the day and at the intermediate sprint of Booten there was no real attempt to deny Harry Tanfield with a smile on his face another win at an intermediate sprint and a small cash prize.
02:27 So the three riders cooperating in their various different ambitions and at the final climb of the day at Red Hill Lane James Fouché was able again unopposed to pick up another four points.
02:40 Harry Tanfield incidentally picking up six points on the road and moving into second place now in the King of the Mountains competition.
02:47 That was the signal that James Fouché needed to drop back, his day done and no point in expending any further unnecessary energy.
02:57 Leaving the two riders from TDT Unibet out front with a gap that was no bigger than around about a minute.
03:04 On the run in then some attempts to try and disrupt things from Bingoal team but they were shut down by Steven Kruijswijk-Peskins, Dimitri Peskins being the rider in question.
03:16 Kruijswijk and Jos van Emden had control as they headed south towards Newark and Trent along the river.
03:22 Ineos Grenadiers then taking Tom Pidcock closer to the front as they entered then a series of complicated twists and turns on the run into the finish line in Newark.
03:34 Wout van Aert with Olaf Kooij on his wheel took the wrong side on that sweeping right-hander and had to retrieve the position for the race leader.
03:40 Bora Hansgrohe did something similar riding for Danny van Poppel the wrong side of a traffic island in the middle of that left-handed turn.
03:47 And van Poppel was on the back foot thereafter and didn't feature in the final.
03:51 However Olaf Kooij got the wheel of Wout van Aert into the final kilometer and with Nathan van Hooydonk leading out van Aert,
03:58 the lead-out man Jumbo Visma had Olaf Kooij the race favorite exactly where they wanted to have him once again.
04:04 A little look back and a check that all was well and Wout van Aert did an enormous lead-out only releasing Olaf Kooij with a hundred meters to go in the sprint.
04:14 And when he delivered the sprint it was once again unanswerable.
04:18 DSM's Kasper van Ouden running in close at the line and Ethan Vernon also pushing for another third place.
04:24 But Olaf Kooij making it four wins out of four on the opening four stages of the Tour of Britain.
04:30 So the same result in terms of the winner.
04:32 Vernon then courtesy of his second third place moving up to second place on GC with Tom Pidcock still in seventh and Wout van Aert in fourth.
04:41 Gonzalo Serrano is still in the top ten.
04:44 He's in ninth place last year's winner of the Tour of Britain.
04:47 But Olaf Kooij leads the way.
04:49 [Race commentary]