Adriatica Ionica Race: Viviani wins stage 4

Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) took his third victory during stage 4 at the inaugural Adriatica Ionica Race on Saturday in Grado. The Italian won the bunch sprint ahead of compatriot Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) and his Quick-Step teammate Alvaro Hodeg.

Viviani was part of the his team's stage 1 team time trial victory in Lido di Jesolo, where he took the event's first leader's jersey, and went on to win stage 2 in Maser, before losing the overall lead to Ivan Sosa (Androni-Giocattoli) during the queen stage 3 to the summit of Passo Giau on Friday.

"Having scored another victory makes me very happy, and to return at the top of the most wins individual classification gives me great pride. The team was again brilliant, my form is good and I think we can be more than content with how the race has panned out so far for us," said Viviani, who brought the team its 41st victory of the season.

Stage 4 at the Adriatica Ionica Race was the longest of the five-day event at 229.2km between San Vito di Cadore and Grado. With tired legs after the previous day's queen stage to Passo Giau, the field raced predominantly rolling, downhill for the first 50km, and an early breakaway of six riders set off.

Those riders included Meiyin Wang (Bahrain-Merida), Andrea Toniatti, (Italy), Marco Tizza (Nippo-Vini Fantini), Nick van der Lijke (Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij), Stanimir Cholakov (Trevigiani Phonix-Hemus 1896) and Enrico Logica (Biesse Carera Gavardo).

They hit the base of the only ascent of the day, Passo Crosetta, which peaked out at the 87km mark, and Logica took the full points as they crested the top. Van der Lijke and Wang, were next to top the ascent, while the full breakaway maintained a healthy 5:20 lead on the main field.

Following a long descent, the second half of the route was pan-flat, with dirt road sectors and an intermediate sprint in Aquileia, located at roughly 20km from the finish line in Grado. The breakaway lost Cholakov and Logica, but continued on with four.

With the sprint teams on the hunt for a stage victory, they cut the breakaway's time down to under two minutes with 30km to go, and by the time they reached the intermediate sprint, they held a mere 43 seconds.

Attacks ensued from the main field with Niki Terpstra (Quick-Step Floors) launching himself out front over the dirt roads, in pursuit of the stage victory. He initially gained 22 seconds with eight kilometres to go, and almost made it across to the four remaining breakaway riders, who struggled to maintain their lead after being off the front of the field for more than 200km.

All remaining efforts were fruitless, however, even for Terpstra as his Quick-Step Floors squad lined-out their lead-out train, reeled in the day's fugitives, and brought Viviani and Hodeg to victory and third place, respectively.

The Adriatica Ionic Race will conclude on Sunday with a 124.6km race between Grado and Trieste, where the winner of the inaugural race will be crowned.

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