 Barring a crash, Ardila looks on course for victory |
Colombia's Mauricio Ardila effectively sealed overall victory in the Tour of Britain after winning stage four in Newport on Saturday. Ardila, who had won stage two, clinched another triumph in a captivating uphill finish to the 100-mile stage.
He just edged out Spain's Fernandez Moreno into second place, while Italian rider Michele Bartoli was third.
Ardila now leads Belgium's Nick Nuyens by 17 seconds in the overall standings ahead of Sunday's finale in London.
With only 19 bonus seconds available for the final stage, Ardila's Chocolade Jacques should be able to do enough to keep their man in the leader's yellow jersey.
"I'm confident I can win now," said Ardila "I've got a bigger gap now and so it will be easier to control my rivals during the final stage in London. We'll have to be careful but we should be okay.
"Today was a nice win. It was a hard finish and I knew the difference would be made in the final few hundred metres. I got it just right."
Stage four result - Newport - 100 miles
1 Mauricio Ardila (Col) Chocolade Jacques 3hrs 32mins 37secs
2 Fernandex Moreno (Sp) Relax same time
3 Michele Bartoli (It) CSC +03 secs
4 Jose Luis Rubiera (Sp) US Postal +03
5 Paolo Savoldelli (It) T-Mobile +03
6 John Gadret (Fra) Chocolade Jacques +03
7 Nick Nuyens (Bel) Quickstep +03
8 Julian Dean (NZ) Credit Agricole +03
9 Andre Korff (Ger) T-Mobile +06
10 Nicki Sorensen (Den) CSC +08
Overall standings
1 Ardila 17hrs 31mins 06secs
2 Nuyens +17 secs
3 Eric Leblacher (Fra) Credit Agricole +18
4 Dean +19
5 Moreno +19
6 Savoldelli +20
7 Bartoli +24
8 Rubiera +24
9 Kevin van Impe (Bel) Lotto-Domo +27
10 Christopher Baldwin (US) Navigatores +27
MMIX
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