Maxim Iglinskiy (Astana) took a solo victory in the penultimate stage at the Tour of Belgium as he remained the sole survivor of the day's seven-man break, which was established quite early on in the stage.

As the escapees rode under the flamme rouge the 32-year-old Astana rider attacked his six breakaway accomplices and even though a violently charging bunch swallowed up the remaining six on the undulating finish, Iglinskiy stayed clear to win by a fraction of seconds. It was Iglinskiy's first win of the  season and his first since a solo victory at the 2012 Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) continued to demonstrate excellent form as he took the group sprint for runner up, followed by world champion Philippe Gilbert (BMC) and Danny van Poppel (Vacansoleil-DCM).

At the top of the general classification German world time trial champion Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) remains in the leader's jersey with only Sunday’s final stage remaining.

A seven-man break, formed after 15km of racing, consisting of Iglinskiy, Jens Debusschere (Lotto Belisol), Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), Björn Leukemans (Vacansoleil-DCM), Grégory Rast (RadioShack Leopard), Sébastien Delfosse (Crelan-Euphony) and Florent Barle (Cofidis, Solutions Credits) characterized and shaped the 164.3km stage in Lacs de l'Eau d'Heure.

The peloton kept the breakaway within reach at approximately three minutes and as the finale approached Omega Pharma-Quick Step significantly upped the pace and steadily minimized the lead. With one lap of the 20km finishing circuit to go the break still enjoyed a 1’54” lead, but cooperation amongst the leaders would soon come to a disastrous end and cause that margin to plunge.

With 10km to go Voeckler launched an assault, but it was soon annulled by his breakaway companions. The unruly Frenchman went again with 3km to go as the break's lead stood at 28 seconds and was joined by Leukemans. The duo were brought back to heel just before the flamme rouge and with the peloton swiftly eradicating the breach to the leaders, Iglinskiy broke clear inside the last km to solo home and narrowly managed to deny Greipel a hat trick of stage wins at the Tour of Belgium.

Result, stage 4:
1 Maxim Iglinskiy - Astana
2 Andre Greipel - Lotto Belisol
3 Philippe Gilbert - BMC Racing Team
4 Danny Van Poppel - Vacansoleil-DCM
 

General classification:
1 Tony Martin - Omega Pharma-Quick Step