Taichung, Taiwan - John Murphy of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis continues to show he is worthy of wearing the yellow leader's jersey of the 2008 Tour de Taiwan.

In Wednesday's 88 km fourth stage, a 40-lap criterium run on a 2.2 km loop, the 24-year-old finished third despite getting cut off in the sprint to the line.

In the final lap, the German Merida team was setting the pace, with Murphy sitting comfortably behind their train awaiting the final sprint.

"Coming to the line, Murphy started his sprint, but then a Merida rider stuffed him in the barriers," said team directeur sportif Mike Tamayo. "He kept it upright, but it was a dicey moment. Murphy had to recover with 200 meters to go and find a new opening. He managed to slip out, sprint again and finish third."

Merida's Jezowski Krzystof won the stage, with Taiji Nishitani (Asian Racing Team) in second.

Not only did the 3rd place on the stage give Murphy a four-second time bonus and 10 additional points toward his lead in the points competition, but he was busy out on the road for the three intermediate sprints as well.

He won the first sprint 16 laps into the race convincingly, Tamayo said. By the race's mid-point, an eight-man break had finally established after numerous attacks, including aggressive riding by Murphy's Health Net Presented by Maxxis teammates Kirk O'Bee and Kyle Gritters. With no riders of any danger in either the overall or points competitions in the break, the team was content to let the riders up the road scoop up the points and time bonuses for the second sprint, with 16 laps to go.

But as the race went on, Health Net Presented by Maxxis led the chase to bring things back together, and once again set up Murphy for an intermediate sprint win with eight to go, while teammate O'Bee hung on for second place after providing the lead-out.

The two intermediate sprint wins, combined with the third place on the stage, gave Murphy an additional 10 seconds of bonus time to pad his narrow lead in the overall classification, and 20 points to solidify his green points jersey lead as well.