Movistar’s Mikel Landa took his first win for his new team, making an early season marker for the fourth stage of Tirreno-Adriatico, whilst BMC’s Damiano Caruso took the Magalia Azzura from Geraint Thomas, who suffered a puncture at the flamme rouge and lost the overall lead, although Sky have Michal Kwiatkowski just behind him by one second.
The day’s break went early, with many of the teams having a stake in the eventual finish, and Nicola Bagioli (Nippo-Vini Fantini-Europa Ovini), Jacopo Mosca (Wilier Triestina-Selle Italia), Krists Neilands (Israel Cycling Academy) and Alexander Vlasov (Gazprom-Rusvelo) were away from almost the drop of the flag.
They would soon be joined by Mads Pedersen (Trek – Segafredo) and Antoine Duchesne (FDJ), and the gap would soon be as much as 5 minutes. Behind, Team Sunweb’s struggled continued with Tom Dumoulin crashing and abandoning the race, meaning they had just three riders left after four stages.
The race was fairly static until the base of the final climb, although before then Bagioli did take the day’s three classified climbs - San Ginesio at 137.6km, Gualdo at 151.3km, and the Penna San Giovanni – whilst Mosca was first to intermediate sprints at Colmurano and Sarnano to extend what were decent leads in those classifications.
On the slopes of the climb, Neilands attacked, then exploding the breakaway as Astana went to the front of the peloton and began to hoover up the day’s other companions. The Latvian champion did an admirable job of keeping himself out in front, managing to maintain a gap of a minute coming towards the last 10 kilometres, a fine effort given the quality on show.
However, that quality told as Tanel Kangert, with Alexey Lutsenko on his wheel, strung out the peloton and soon enough he was being joined by the ominous figure of Vasil Kiryienka, pushing the bright white Team Sky train into contention on the other side of the road. Everything was moving into shape and it was not a good time to have any sort of hold up, so Primoz Roglic couldn’t have touched wheels at a worse time.
There was a main field of favourites that was slimming now and in it was the Movistar duo Mikel Landa and Jaime Roson, the leading young rider, along with the overwhelming majority of the top 10.
Kangert, having put everyone into the hurt zone, gave out and at this point Miguel Angel Lopez attacked and left Sky to chase; He was quickly followed by Fabio Aru and Rafal Majka, giving him the company, he needed to start gaining time, and they would be then joined by Israel Cycling Academy’s Ben Hermans, who surprised his companions by joining the attack to make a leading group of four.
They were attacking each other regularly, with Majka the next to go, leaving Lopez to chase him whilst Aru dragged Hermans back to make a trio. It was at this point that Mikel Landa, quiet until then, attacked the peloton and immediately managed to create a clear gap. He quickly passed Lopez, who cramped up around a very tight hairpin, and meanwhile, Chris Froome began to lose contact too, not a surprise or a shame in early season days.
Landa caught Majka up front, with Aru and Hermans in tow, whilst the flame rouge approached. It was at this point that Romain Bardet attacked from the front and then Geraint Thomas suffered a puncture, which left him standing in the road and looking for forlorn assistance. Bardet’s attack was followed by a mighty burst from George Bennett, with the New Zealander bearing down upon the front quartet at a rate of knots.
Aru was live to the danger and tried to get away, but nobody was stronger than Mikel Landa, who would take a well-deserved victory.
General Classification
1 Damiano Caruso (Ita) BMC Racing Team 17:14:49
2 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb 00:00:11
3 Mikel Landa (Spa) Movistar Team 00:00:20
4 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 00:00:26
5 Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale 00:00:31
6 George Bennett (NZl) LottoNL-Jumbo 00:00:33
7 Davide Formola (Ita) Bora - Hansgrohe 00:00:34
8 Tiesj Benoot (Bel) Lotto Soudal 00:00:36
9 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 00:00:41
10 Jaimie Roson (Spa) Movistar Team 00:00:44
Stage Results
1 Mikel Landa (Spa) Movistar Team 06:22:13
2 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe 00:00:00
3 George Bennett (NZl) LottoNL-Jumbo 00:00:00
4 Fabio Aru (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 00:00:06
5 Ben Hermans (Bel) Israel Cycling Academy 00:00:06
6 Tiesj Benoot (Bel) Lotto Soudal 00:00:06
7 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 00:00:06
8 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb 00:00:06
9 Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott 00:00:06
10 Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale 00:00:06
