SAINT-VALLIER, France — Michael Albasini of Switzerland beat four other riders in a sprint finish to win the hilly fourth stage of the Paris-Nice race on Thursday, while American Andrew Talansky kept hold of the leader’s yellow jersey.
Albasini attacked in the last 500 metres and won by a bike’s length ahead of Maxim Iglinskiy of Kazakhstan, with Slovakian rider Peter Velits finishing third. All three clocked the same time of 4 hours 55 minutes, 41 seconds over the 199.5-kilometre (124 -mile) trek from Brioude to Saint-Vallier, featuring seven moderate climbs.
Talansky’s Garmin-Sharp teammates worked in tandem with the Sky Procycling team to keep up the pace, enabling Talansky to maintain his overall lead of three seconds over Andriy Grivko of Ukraine. Velits is four seconds behind Albasini in third place overall.