With no big-name sprinter on the roster, Astana rode an aggressive race in today's fourth stage of the Tour Down Under.

“After the intermediate sprint the bunch stopped working and I took the initiative to attack," Ruslan Tleubayev said. after stage four at the Tour Down Under in Australia.

Tleubayev and two other riders formed the day’s main breakaway and quickly gained a maximum time advantage of three minutes over the peloton on a very hot day around Adelaide.

Tleubayev’s teammate Luis Leon Sanchez attacked the reunited peloton with 7km to go, but the group accelerated to prepare for a mass sprint finish.

Teammates Laurens De Vreese and Lars Boom both went down in a mass crash with 150m to go, but escaped without major consequences.

Sanchez remains just 25 seconds behind overall leader Rohan Dennis ahead of Saturday’s decisive uphill finish at Willunga Hill.