Soudal-QuickStep's Filippo Zana soloed to victory on the climb-packed stage 4 of the Giro di Sardegna, attacking in the final 10km after a long day of hard work from his team to claim the stage and move into the race lead.
Soudal-QuickStep are one of only two WorldTour teams in action in Sardinia, and their strength had so far been foiled by lower-level teams, but they were determined to go for the win on the race's Queen stage, and Zana duly delivered.
"Today we did an amazing race," Zana said at the finish. "The whole team was working so well, so strong. In the final, we tried on the last climb, but at the top we were maybe 20 guys, so we decided to the descent full gas. The last 10km I tried to do alone, and behind my teammates did an amazing job. I'm super happy for me, yes, but also for the team."
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The Belgian squad took third on the stage, too, with Louis Vervaeke completing the podium just behind Alessandro Verre (MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort) in the small uphill sprint from the chasers behind.
Overnight leader Nicolò Garibbo (Team UKYO) was dropped early on the stage, which meant Zana moved into the race lead with one much flatter day of racing remaining on Sunday.
Zana now leads the race by 46 over his teammate Gianmarco Garofoli, with Verre in a distant third, 1:39 down.
It was a climbing-heavy day in Sardinia with four categorised ascents on the cards, the first coming straight out of the gate with 20km Passo Genna Silana.
A breakaway was away early in the race, but they were caught before the racing kicked off from the peloton over the penultimate Nuoro climb. Soudal-QuickStep forced a pace that put race leader Garibbo in trouble, and he was soon dropped and in a chasing group.
With 35km to go, the QuickStep group was leading by two and a half minutes, and they kept the pace high on the final Su Pradu climb, continuing to whittle down the lead group. Near the top, Filippo Zana launched the attack that drew out a smaller group, and with 23km to go, only ten riders were left in the lead.
Zana went again in the final 10km, quickly getting a small gap, and despite the best efforts of the group behind – with Zana's teammates effectively sitting on – they couldn't catch the Italian, with him soloing to his first victory for his new team, increasing his gap in the final kilometre.
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