American Tyler Farrar of the Garmin team retained the overall lead of the Eneco Tour by winning the race’s fourth stage after a sprint battle with Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen and Italian Francesco Gavazzi.

It is Farrar’s third win of the race after he won the opening two stages.

Sunday’s fifth stage will lead the peloton over 204.3km from Roermond to Sittard-Geleen in the Netherlands on some of the roads traditionally used by the hilly one-day classic the Amstel Gold Race.

On several occasions Farrar came close to upstaging British sprint rival Mark Cavendish on this year’s Tour de France, where the Isle of Man rider, who rides for Columbia, won a stunning six stages to take his career tally to 10.

However, Farrar has since shown his emerging talent, and made slight amends by becoming the first American to win the Hamburg Cyclassics last weekend although a host of top fast men, including Cavendish were absent.

Eneco Tour standings after the fourth stage on Saturday:

1. Tyler Farrar (USA/Garmin) 5hr 27min 01sec, 2. Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR), 3. Francesco Gavazzi (ITA), 4. Greg Van Avermaet (BEL), 5. Kristof Goddaert (BEL), 6. Jose Joaquin Rojas (ESP), 7. Aitor Galdos (ESP), 8. Roy Sentjens (BEL), 9. Alexandre Usov (BLR), 10. Lars Bak (DEN) all same time

Overall standings:
1. Tyler Farrar (USA/Garmin) 17hr 51min 13sec, 2. Tom Boonen (BEL) at 20, 3. Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR) 23, 4. Sylvain Chavanel (FRA) 35, 5. Bradley Wiggins (GBR) 37, 6. Joost Posthuma (NED) 37, 7. Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) 37, 8.
Maarten Tjallingii (NED) 37, 9. Juan Antonio Flecha (ESP) 39, 10. Nikolas Maes
(BEL) 40

Photo by: CorVos Pro