Intro:

Mark Cavendish won a sprint finish to claim victory at the end of stage four in the Tour de Suisse on Tuesday (June 17th), while Tony Martin retained his six-second overall lead.

Script:

There was more fine summer weather for the field in the Tour de Suisse to bask in on Tuesday as they took on a 160.4-kilometre fourth stage.

The day's main attack occurred right from the off, with Laurens de Vreese and Daniel Teklehaimanot pulling away from the peloton at the start of the stage.

However, the flat course offered little chance of a breakaway victory and few opportunities for the leading riders to threaten Tony Martin's overall lead.

Former Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins couldn't count himself amongst that number at the start of the day and the Team Sky rider lost more time to Germany's Martin after crashing inside the final 30 kilometres.

De Vreese and Daniel Teklehaimanot were eventually caught by the main group with ten kilometres to go, setting up a bunch sprint to the finishing line.

Mark Cavendish came on top in that duel, crossing the line in a winning time of three hours, 35 minutes and three seconds, finishing ahead of Juan Jose Lobato in second place and stage three winner Peter Sagan in third.

Sagan picked up a four-second bonus and closed to within ten seconds of Martin, who remains six seconds clear of his nearest rival in the overall standings, Tom Dumoulin.