Greg Van Avermaet finished fourth for the BMC Racing Team Friday at the Tour de Suisse while teammates Ben Hermans and Manuel Senni both went down in a crash and Silvan Dillier was part of the day's breakaway. Alexander Kristoff (Katusha Team) took the win ahead of Thursday's winner, Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo). Davide Cimolai (Lampre-Merida) was third.

Van Avermaet said he thought the slightly uphill finish to the 164.6-kilometer race suited him.

"For me, it was a hard day," he said. "They were riding high tempo the whole day. I was in good position with 500 or 600 meters to go and tried to do a good sprint. I am pretty happy with fourth place. It is not easy to beat Kristoff and Sagan. But we tried again and I think this is the only way to beat them."

Dillier was joined in the breakaway by world road champion Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-Quick Step), Daryl Impey (ORICA-GreenEDGE) and Axel Domont (Ag2r La Mondiale) in the first 20 kilometers. But the quartet was given no more than four minutes of freedom as Sagan's Tinkoff-Saxo team kept the gap in check.

Dillier was caught inside of two kilometers. Kwiatowski was last to be absorbed shortly thereafter. Dillier said he never felt comfortable that the breakaway would stay away.

"The last few races, I was always a little bit disappointed because I really tried hard and we did not make it to the finish," he said. "This time, I said to myself, 'I am there, I got in the good move, I am in the breakaway and let's see how far we can get." At the end, we went full gas but I always thought, 'we will see.'"

Hermans and Senni crashed when another rider collided with Hermans as the race was about to enter the first of two finishing laps. Senni was the more seriously injured, suffering a gash to his right leg. He rode in with a group 17:09 after the stage winner.

Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) kept the overall lead. Hermans finished 31st and is 17th overall, 4:27 back of Pinot with two days to go.