Primož Roglič took the Stage 4 victory at Tirreno Adriatico, despite the initial team plan being to work for Wout van Aert. The Dutch rider crashed however with fellow cyclocross star Tom Pidock in a slightly strange bit of contact. Both riders went down and out of contention for the stage victory. After being active once the race hit the finishing circuits, it came down to Primož Roglič to outsprint Julian Alaphilippe and Adam Yates to the finish line.
“I was not the first man. Normally we would go with Wout, but he was unlucky. So we could change the plan, and then I go for it at the end. It’s always nice to win.”
Primož Roglič
The longest stage of the 2023 Tirreno Adriatico at 218km, the race headed east across the Apennines to a finishing circuit of 17km that was tackled 3 times. The length of the stage encouraged the peloton to keep its powder dry until the final circuit. A break of 5 achieved a gap of 7 minutes but it was still closed up with 70km still to race. From here, the main racing kicked off with riders falling out of the back of the bunch on each ascent. Pidcock originally fell out of the front group but got back in, only to have the crash with Wout van Aert. In reaching the finish, Roglič held off challenges from the likes of Hugh Carthy, Tao Geoghegan Hart, Adam Yates and Julian Alaphillipe in a mostly British attack force.
The overall race lead changed hands as Filippo Ganna lost time after cracking on the final climbs. Lennard Kämna of Bora Hansgrohe took over Ganna’s spot at the top of the GC classification.
2023 Tirreno Adriatico Stage 4 result
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
Main photo credit: Cor Vos
