Steve Cummings wins stage four of Tirreno-Adriatico as Geraint Thomas moves into yellow in Paris-Nice

Steve Cummings managed to win stage four of Tirreno-Adriatico while trying to set things up for Dimension Data team leader, Edvald Boasson Hagen. Meanwhile, fellow Briton Geraint Thomas has taken the overall race lead in Paris-Nice after narrowly being denied victory on stage six’s summit finish by Russia’s Ilnur Zakarin.

Sky Sports reports that Cummings had been covering moves in the closing stages of the Italian race, but had ended up going it alone.

"We were trying to do a stage for Edvald Boasson Hagen. We thought he was the best chance today. He is in super form.

"I was there as the policeman really, but then it came to 3km and normally I can do 3km alone, so I tried to do that strategy. I don't know if that was OK, but it seemed to work out all right.

"I was pretty confident. I sit pretty aero on the bike. Everyone else had been pulling, but I hadn't been pulling. It worked.

"It was good having Edvald behind because it meant we didn't have to do anything. It was a great team performance. I was just lucky at the end."

Over in Paris-Nice, Thomas attacked with just a few hundred metres remaining, but was passed right on the line by Katusha rider Zakarin.

Nevertheless, he took the race lead from Orica-GreenEDGE’s Michael Matthews who had earlier been dropped.

"It's unbelievable. Thankfully I had the legs and I was able to respond to Contador's attacks. I'm disappointed not to win the stage, but to gain a little time on Richie [Porte] and Contador was really good.

"I really didn't know what to expect, so take the jersey is great. We knew the roads well and tried to stay out of trouble. From then we just had to wait for Contador or Richie to attack and try to resist and save as much as we could to sprint in the end if we were there."