Paul Magnier wins his second Tour of Britain stage as Wales’ Stevie Williams keeps lead

Frenchman Paul Magnier won his second Tour of Britain stage in four days as he edged across the line first in a bunched finish on day four.

The 20-year-old Soudal Quick-Step rider, who won the opening stage, beat Britain’s Ethan Vernon at the end of a 138.5kilometre stretch from Derby to Newark to record his fourth professional win.

Vernon’s Israel-Premier Tech team-mate Stevie Williams continues to lead the general classification by 16 seconds ahead of fellow Briton Oscar Onley, of Team dsm–firmenich PostNL.

Magnier said: “It’s been very nice – we put in a strong team performance today. I want to thank Martin Svrček in the headwind all day and then all my other teammates worked to make it into a bunch race and keep me in the front which helped me to save my legs for the last few hundred metres. I did a really nice sprint so I can thank my team. I’m really happy to take the victory today.

“Tomorrow I hope it will again be a bunch sprint and we will try and go again for the victory. I’m really proud to be a part of a team like this – they did an amazing job, they’re super strong and they gave me wings. It’s nice to see a lot of people here – it gives us motivation.”

Race leader Williams, who finished 26th in Newark-on-Trent added: “It was tough going again today. The last 10k was incredibly fast. There was a lot of jumping, a lot of moving around so I’m really happy to keep hold of the jersey.”

Saturday’s penultimate stage is a 146.9km loop around Northampton.