Miguel Ángel López wins stage four of the Tour of the Alps as Bilbao controls GC into final day

Miguel Ángel López lost time on stage two after trying to raid the Tour of the Alps, however it was clear that it was not because of lack of form. The Colombian took advantage of the freedom he's gained, to attack on the final climb of the day and take Astana Qazaqstan Team's second win of the season.

As a day that suited a breakaway, the fight was as expected big to be able to get in the head of the race. It took over 60 kilometers of racing for the move to go off the front - with 80 kilometers to go - with a 12 rider group attacking. Sebastián Henao, Andrey Amador, Ben Swift, Nicolas Prodhomme, Matteo Fabbro, Anton Palzer, Jonathan Caicedo, Merhawi Kudus, Thibaut Pinot, Omer Goldstein, Abner González, Natnael Tesfatsion, Igor Arrieta and Unai Cuadrado, made the move, but never got much of a gap as DSM was content in taking responsabilities to put on a furious chase.

The group broke early on in the ascent, as some riders attacked just before the ascent, but with the toughest gradients at it's base it was no surprise to see the group blown to bits quickly, with Thibaut Pinot taking the lead of the race with around a minute lead to the DSM, then INEOS-led peloton.

López antecipated the GC battle with 4 kilometers to go, getting a gap before Pavel Sivakov mainly attacked the group several times - to no success. It was a thrilling finish as López caught up with the Frenchman inside the final kilometer, however he immediately attacked sharply, dropping Pinot and heading to his first win of the season.

Pinot survived to finish in second place, whilst in the peloton Romain Bardet won the sprint for third place as the GC riders once again arrived together.