Kump 2nd in a massive sprint in Lanaken

With an excellent darting move, Marko Kump captured 2nd place in the final sprint for the 4th stage of the BinckBank Tour, the 160,7 km Lanaken-Lanaken.

The Slovenian cyclist from UAE Team Emirates chose the right tyre, belonging to Teuns, for the last metres of the sprint, and he was fast enough to get next to the Belgian rider, although he didn’t manage to get ahead of him on the finish line (photo Bettini).

Therefore victory went to Teuns and honours placement went to Kump, ahead of Merlier, Sagan and Groenewegen.

In the general classification, on the eve of a stage which should begin an initial selection (167.3 km Sittard Geleen-Sittard Geleen with 18 hills to climb), the leader is still Kung; Swift is the rider doing the best so far for UAE Team Emirates, currently occupying the 22nd place at 27″.

Kump described the challenges of the stage and the sprint: “It was a frenetic day, with a route featuring continuous curves, some of them really tight, and the added difficulty of wet roads due to rain. As a team we managed to always race in a good position. This was important on such a complicated route and it allowed me to save some strength in preparation for the sprint. At the beginning of the sprint I wound up a bit closed in, but then I caught up to Teuns’ tyre, perhaps a little late to be able to pass him.”

Stage 4 results
1 Edward Teuns (Trek-Segafredo) 3h24’23”
2 Marko Kump (UAE Team Emirates) s.t.
3 Tim Merlier (Verandas Willems-Crelan) s.t.

General classification after stage 4
1 Stefan Kung (BMC) 11h39’31”
2 Maciej Bodnar (Bora-Hansgrohe) 4″
3 Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) 5″
22 Ben Swift (UAE Team Emirates) 27″