Well thats how it should have been but it wasn't the way things ended up. No sooner were the riders out of the neutral and heading south from the start at Wrest Point Casino than there was a solo breakaway. Tasmania International rider Peter Milostic took to the bunch and at the Shot Tower was slowly slipping away from the front of the peleoton. He was soon joined by three other riders including south australias Steve Cunningham from the caffe` paesano team, Gareth Atkins(nortas) and Trent Perry(new zealand) and these four riders would take all the bonus and time points along the way until relinquishing the lead at 87 kilometres. As in other stages the russian team would once again ensure that there was not a major time blowout and worked hard at the front to reel in the escapees.
Next up was the run through Ferntree and then the log and gruelling climb up to the summit of Mt Wellington. Initially there would be eight riders including tasmanias Danny Clark who was mixing it with the youngsters till the pace was just too much to sustain. The bunch was then reduced to five, then four, then three as the two Team Peugeot-Berri Ltd riders moved clear with Karpets. Glen Chadwick continued to show his climbing abillity by heading for the top after breaking away with less than 5 kilometres left to go. Karpets cracked and Tighello was left in second but the russian was not done yet as he staged a miracle comeback to pass Tighello in the last 2 kilometres. The positions didn't change in the charge up the final kilometre but it did change the GC as Chadwick was now in yellow
Stage 4 Result
1 Glen Chadwick 3hrs 24min 32secs(elapsed time)....31.7kph ave speed
2 Vladimir Karpets
3 Robert Tighello
4 Sergey Klimov
5 Ashley Humbert
6 Robert Bartko
7 Darryl Beddome
8 Dennis Smyslov
9 Vadislav Borissov
10 David McPartland
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