"That must have been one of my longest days of the season. Best plan was to get through it eating and drinking, conserving for the finish and avoiding the crashes."

Those were the words of Astana's Daniil Fominykh after stage four at the 2015 Tour of Hainan. At around 7k to the finish, Fominykh and Dmitriy Gruzdev increased race tempo in the main peloton to help create more comfortable positions for their designated teammates during the wide and flat finish in the province of Chengmai at the end of 237km of racing under a blazing tropical sun.

Longest stage of the 2015 Tour of Hainan, stage four finished in a sprint as was widely expected, with victory again to Sacha Modolo of Italy, who also moved into the overall leader's yellow jersey. Astana Pro Team's top result came with Ruslan Tleubayev in the Top-10 among the best sprinters.

Ahead of the riders are three more flat days, with the decisive mountain finish next Tuesday ahead of Wednesday's race-ending downtown city finish sprint.