(Reuters) - Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel claimed victory on the fourth stage of the Tour of Britain with an audacious attack 300 metres from the line in Kendal on Tuesday.
After a challenging day in the Pennines and Lake District featuring three categorised climbs the Correndon-Circus rider sprinted clear of a reduced peloton to take the stage win, making up for his near miss on Monday.
Van der Poel's win saw him replace Matteo Trentin as the overall leader by one second.
"It's really nice to win this stage; it was a really hard stage, a lot of climbing and I think my team rode it perfectly," he said at the finish.
Van der Poel made his move just as a breakaway trio of Ag2r La Mondiale's Tony Gallopin, Ben Hermans (Israel Cycling Academy) and James Shaw (SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling) were caught in the final kilometre and before any of his rivals could react he was away, blasting up the sharp uphill stretch to the finish line and winning by a healthy margin.
Jasper De Buyst (Lotto-Soudal) and Simon Clarke (EF Education First) completed the podium.
Wednesday's stage is a flatter one starting and finishing in Birkenhead after crossing into north Wales.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Toby Davis)
