Tour of Britain: Fernando Gaviria beats Andre Greipel on stage four

Fernando Gaviria stunned Andre Greipel to win stage four of the Aviva Tour of Britain as Juan Jose Lobato retained the overall lead.

Colombian sprinter Gaviria (Etixx - Quick-Step) came from seemingly nowhere in the final 100m to beat Greipel (Lotto Soudal) into second place and Edvald Boasson Hagen (MTN-Qhubeka) into third at the end of a 217.6km day from Edinburgh to Blyth.

Gaviria, 21, had been intending to lead out Mark Cavendish but abandoned that plan when he saw his team-mate was out of position and instead sprinted for the line himself. Cavendish eventually finished 13th and could be seen celebrating Gaviria's triumph.

Lobato (Movistar) finished 15th to remain in the yellow jersey, but his lead over second-placed Boasson Hagen has been cut from 10 seconds to six after the Norwegian picked up four bonus seconds for finishing third.

Gaviria said: "Today is an important day in my career. I won the race against the best sprinters in the world. But it wasn't planned like that.

"My job today was to pull in the sprint for Mark [Cavendish], but Mark was a little bit boxed in the last corner at 400m to go and he couldn't really sprint. So, I looked around me and I made the decision to go for the sprint.

"When I crossed the line as the winner, it was a huge moment. I beat one of the best sprinters in the pro peloton, a point of reference for a guy like myself. So, it's really an honor to get this victory."

Day four followed a similar pattern to the previous one as a six-man breakaway was reeled in ahead of a bunch sprint, although the catch happened sooner - at 16.5km - and there were just three riders clear at that point.

The strength of the three - Alan Marangoni (Cannondale-Garmin), Matteo Trentin (Etixx - Quick-Step) and Danilo Wyss (BMC Racing) - meant the peloton pursued with real intent, with Team Sky's Ian Stannard prominent at the front.

Sir Bradley Wiggins (WIGGINS) also made an appearance at the head of the pack as his team attempted to set up team-mate Owain Doull for a first stage win, but the Welshman eventually had to settle for fourth.

Stage four result

1 Fernando Gaviria (Col) Etixx - Quick-Step, 5:13:08

2 Andre Greipel (Ger) Lotto-Soudal, same time

3 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) MTN-Qhubeka, st

4 Owain Doull (GB) WIGGINS, st

5 Jens Debusschere (Bel) Lotto-Soudal, st

6 Jonas Van Genechten (Bel) IAM Cycling, st

7 Elia Viviani (Ita) Team Sky, st

8 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) MTN-Qhubeka, st

9 Floris Gerts (Ned) BMC Racing, st

10 Graham Briggs (GB) JLT Condor, st

General classification

1 Juan Jose Lobato (Esp) Movistar, 18:50:12

2 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) MTN-Qhubeka, +6sec

3 Floris Gerts (Ned) BMC Racing, +12

4 Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky, +13

5 Dylan van Baarle (Ned) Cannondale-Garmin, same time

6 Owain Doull (GB) WIGGINS, +14

7 Graham Briggs (GB) JLT Condor, st

8 Rasmus Gulhammer (Den) Cult Energy, st

9 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Etixx - Quick-Step, st

10 Serge Pauwels (Bel) MTN-Qhubeka +20