Colom wins fourth stage of Tour of Majorca alone

Spain's Antonio Colom (Katusha) won the fourth stage of the Tour of Majorca today ahead of a group of four riders, taking the lead in the overall classification in the process.

The day's action was characterised by an early break of three riders that escaped on the 143km loop around Bunyola.

The break gained a maximum advantage of 3:40 over the peloton, but were not allowed to gain any more time as the Katusha team started to work to pull the escapees back, with Vladimir Karpets and Christian Pfannberger each doing long turns on the front.

Colom took the opportunity to launch an attack when the peloton had re-grouped, taking with him ten other riders, which included Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step), Markus Fothen (Milram) and four Columbia riders.

Climbing the Soller, Colom attacked again, dropping his breakaway companions with the chase group splitting on the climb.

Colom was a lone-winner coming into Bunyola, 56 seconds ahead of Chavanel and Jérôme Pineau (both Quick Step) and Edvald Boasson Hagen and Maxime Monfort (both Columbia).

Plowman Craven-Madison man of the day was Jonathan Tiernan-Locke, who climbed well to finish 36th, more than five minutes down on Colom, on a stage where big-name riders - including the likes of Robbie McEwan - came in half an hour adrift.

TOUR OF MAJORCA STAGE FOUR RESULTS:

1. Antonio Colom (Spa) Katusha 143km in 3-05-49

2. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Columbia

3. Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Quick Step

4. Sylvian Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step

5. Maxime Monfort (Bel) Columbia all at 56 secs

6. Morris Possoni (Ita) Columbia at 1-00

7. Mikel Nieve (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi at 1-01

8. Manuel Vazquez (Spa) Contentpolis-AMPO

9. Paul Martens (Ger) Rabobank

10. Markus Fothen (Ger) Milram all at 1-05

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE FOUR

1. Antonio Colom (Spa) Katusha 14-17-20

2. Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Quick Step at 0-41

3. Edvald Boasson (Nor) Columbia

4. Sylvian Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step

5. Mikel Nieve (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi at 0-46

6. Markus Fothen (Ger) Milram at 0-50

7. Francisco Pérez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne at 0-51

8. Íñigo Landaluce (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi at 1-45

9. Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Rabobank

10. Juan Manuel Garate (Spa) Rabobank at 2-00

Peloton on stage four

Antonio Colom wins the stage and takes the race lead

RELATED LINKS

Stage three: Bennati takes sprint win

Stage two: McEwen wins

Tour of Majorca photo gallery, by Graham Watson

Stage one: Steegmans wins

2009 Tour of Majorca preview