Tour of Britain Stage 4: Etixx Quick-Step stagiaire Fernando Gaviria sprints to victory

Fernando Gaviria , a 21-year-old stagiaire at Etixx-Quick Step, has won Stage 4 of the Aviva Tour of Britain, beating Lotto-Soudal’s André Greipel and Edvald Boasson Hagen of MTN-Qhubeka to win the sprint in Blyth on the Northumberland coast.

The 21-year-old sprinter from Colombia impressed Etixx-Quick Step’s management when beating Mark Cavendish to win two stages at the Tour de San Luis at the start of the season that he will join it on a two-year contract from 1 January.

By then, the Manxman looks certain to be riding elsewhere, and at the end of today’s 217.4 kilometre stage from Edinburgh, Gaviria took another notable scalp in the shape of Greipel, winner of four stages at the Tour de France in July.

Like his team mate, Gaviria has had early success on the track – he’s the reigning world omnium champion – and when Etixx-Quick Step announced in February he would be joining the team later in the season, Cavendish said on Twitter he was “over the moon” at the signing.

Today, he helped lead the Colombian out and celebrated his win as he crossed the line, with Cavendish one of three British stars who turned domestique this afternoon.

The others were Alex Dowsett, who spent much of the stage on the front of the peloton keeping the six-man break in check on behalf of race leader and Movistar team mate Juan Jose Lobato, and Sir Bradley Wiggins.

The world time trial champion, who won’t be defending his title in Richmond, Virginia, later this month, towed the group along in the closing kilometres on behalf of Team Wiggins colleague Owain Doull, who now leads the Chain Reaction Cycles Points classification.

Tom Stewart of Madison-Genesis is still top of the Skoda KOM competition, while ONE Pro Cycling’s Peter WIliams retains the YodelDirect Sprints jersey.