Tao Geoghegan Hart maintained his 22-second lead over fellow Briton Hugh Carthy at the Tour of the Alps on the penultimate stage.
Thursday’s 152.9km stage was won by Austrian Gregor Muhlberger, who pipped Torstein Traeen and Giulio Pellizzari in a breakaway in northern Italy.
Ineos Grenadiers rider Geoghegan Hart finished in the main group.
He was alongside EF Education-Easypost’s Carthy and Australian Jack Haig, who is third overall.
Geoghegan Hart, 28, won the first two stages of the race earlier in the week and victory in the general classification would be his first race win since he triumphed in the Giro d’Italia in 2020.
The final day is a tricky 144.5km stage which begins with a steep climb and ends in the Italian city of Bruneck.
Stage four result
- Gregor Muhlberger (Aut/Movistar) 4hrs 16mins 53secs
- Torstein Traeen (Nor/UNO-X) Same time
- Giulio Pellizzari (Ita/Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizane)
- Patrick Konrad (Aut/BORA-Hansgrohe) +40secs
- Stefan de Bod (SA/EF Education-Easypost) Same time
- Oscar Rodriguez (Spa/Movistar)
- Marco Frigo (Ita/ISRAEL-Premier Tech)
- Geoffrey Bouchard (Fra/AG2R Citroen Team)
- Mark Donovan (GB/Q36.5)
- Antonio Pedrero (Spa/Movistar)
General classification
- Tao Geoghegan Hart (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) 15hrs 41mins 54secs
- Hugh Carthy (GB/EF Education-Easypost) +22secs
- Jack Haig (Aus/Bahrain-Victorious) +28secs
- Jefferson Alexander Cepeda (Ecu/EF Education-Easypost) +36secs
- Lorenzo Fortunato (Ita/EOLO-Kometa) +38secs
- Lennard Kamna (Ger/BORA-Hansgrohe) +45secs
- Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus/BORA-Hansgrohe) +49secs
- Pavek Sivakov (Fra/Ineos Grenadiers) +56secs
- Santiago Buitrago (Col/Bahrain-Victorious) +58secs
- Felix Gall (Aut/AG2R Citroen) +1min 20secs
This article was originally published by Bbc.co.uk. Read the original article here.