2019 Tirreno – Adriatico: Stage 4 Results

Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Pro Team) won the fourth stage of the 2019 Tirreno-Adriatico, 221km from Foligno to Fossombrone, ahead of Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo – Visma) and Adam Yates (Mitchelton – Scott). Yates retains the Maglia Azzurra of leader of the GC.

It was another long stage after yesterday’s 226 kilometers, starting from Foligno to finish in Fossombrone after 221 kilometers of racing, including two hard HC categorized climbs in the final 20 kilometers. A group of ten riders formed the day’s breakaway and they created a gap with the bunch of more than 9 minutes. But going into the final 100 kilometers, several riders started to chase from the peloton, including Dmitriy Gruzdev. From that moment, the race exploded. The breakaway was reeled in, there were several crashes in the descent and in the end there was a select group including Alexey Lutsenko and Jakob Fuglsang.

With 37 kilometers to go, Lutsenko decided to attack. The Kazakh champion managed to create a gap of more than 50 seconds, with Jakob Fuglsang controlling the chasing group. But due to the two crashes, Lutsenko got caught by Jakob Fuglsang, Primoz Roglic and Adam Yates. In the sprint for the stage win, Lutsenko showed he didn’t give up after his crashes, winning stage 4 of Tirreno-Adriatico. His teammate Fuglsang finished fourth, behind Roglic and Yates. Adam Yates holds the race lead after stage 4 and with three stages remaining.

Speaking seconds after the stage finish, the stage winner, Alexey Lutsenko, said: “It was a crazy race today. I felt really good, so I decided to attack, but it was still far to the finish. Jakob Fuglsang did a great job controlling the group behind me, as the whole team performed really well today to get me and Jakob in a good position before the start of the final. I went in TT mode, but somehow I missed a corner and crashed at the side of the road, but I could only think about moving on and I was able to get on my bike really fast again. The second crash was more bad and harder, and this time the three riders behind me including Jakob were able to come back. But in my head, I still didn’t lose the race, I still believed in a stage win. When I won the final sprint and took the victory, I was happy but in a lot of pain at the same time. I’m very proud that I took another win for my team, I really believe this is something we achieved all together because of our hard work at the several training camps.”

The Maglia Azzurra, Adam Yates, said: “It was a hard stage in the end, almost like an Ardennes Classic, up and down all day with steep and twisty roads.

“But the guys looked after me all day again, we stayed in a good position where we could and I could save a lot of energy for the final.

“It was a tricky stage, super hard there in the final, Roglic was riding a super high pace and there was only me and Fuglsang who could hang on.

“We’ll have to look at the time gaps, I’m not sure how far the group was behind us, but obviously we still need to take time and I think now my main rival is Roglic, he’s super strong in the TT and he’ll take a lot of time on the last stage, so we have to try tomorrow,” Yates concluded.

Stage 4 Brief Results:

1. Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Pro Team) 221km in 5h16’29”, average speed 41.897kph
2. Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo – Visma) s.t.
3. Adam Yates (Mitchelton – Scott) s.t.

General Classification After Stage 4:

1. Adam Yates (Mitchelton – Scott)
2. Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo – Visma) at 7″
3. Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) at 50″

Sunday’s Stage: Colli al Metauro – Recanati 180km

This will be a “wall climbing” stage. Sharp ascents will be tightly packed in the three laps of the final circuit, where the route will climb up to Porta d’Osimo four times and up to San Pietro three times (max. gradient 20%). A flat stretch along the Adriatic coast leads all the way to Loreto and eventually to the final 22.8km circuit, to be covered three times. The Muro di San Pietro deserves great attention: the climb is quite uncomplicated at first (avg. slope 6.8%), but gradients rise steeply over the last 200m, topping out at 20% at the summit.

The final kilometres run steadily uphill. The Porta d’Osimo climb begins 3.6km before the finish, with milder gradients over the first 500m, followed by the actual “wall”: 1,300m with an average 14% slope and peaks reaching 19%. A milder uphill stretch, with gradients around 3%, leads all the way to the finish. The home straight is 300m long, on 5.5m wide tarmac.