Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious) powered to victory on stage 4 of the CRO Race with a brutal 150-metre grinding effort on the uphill finish into Labin ahead of Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers) in second and Orluis Aular (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) in third.
Ineos Grenadiers were on the front going into the final few hundred metres with Sheffield leading teammate Ethan Hayter, but once Mohorič came around the duo with his sprint, only the young American could respond, getting onto his back wheel but never coming close to rounding the Slovenian before the line.
"I wanted to show my dedication and determination with a stage win," said Mohorič. "My team supported me up to the bottom of the final climb with no issues. I knew I could take the win if space opened up for me on the final sprint."
Sheffield did, however, go into the race lead after finishing as runner-up but won’t be comfortable as he only holds a narrow 1-second lead over Aular going into the final weekend of racing with only two much easier days of racing to come.
Jayco AlUla and Uno-X invested the most throughout the stage, controlling on the front for much of the final 70km, but they could only manage finishing positions of 10th and 12 through Eddie Dunbar and Torstein Træen respectively.
Riders set off on the longest stage of the CRO Race at 191km from sunny Krk with the queen stage ahead of them. The action took some time to brew with the inclines awaiting the peloton, before eventually Mirco Maestri (EOLO Kometa), Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X) and Michal Schuran (ATT Investments) got up the road.
Their time in front wouldn’t last too long after re-entering mainland Croatia from the Krk bridge, with Abrahamsen the last man standing in pursuit of KOM points which, with his haul at the end of stage 4, put him into the jersey with only two stages and one categorised climb remaining in the race.
Jayco AlUla assumed control at the front of the peloton for the majority of the day alongside Uno-X and Ineos Grenadiers, protecting their respective leaders before the descent onto the finishing circuit into Labin where the day’s bragging rights would be decided and the racing would kick off.
Once we hit the inclines 16km from the finish, Jayco AlUla again set the pace, lining out the peloton behind them with Dunbar sitting at the back of the train ready in waiting to launch an attack, but he became isolated too early and slipped down the group into poor position before the finale.
With one ascent to the finish line remaining, the pace lulled before Ineos once again took control and started their long leadout for either Sheffield or Hayter with both able to perform on punchy finishes.
Sheffield appeared to be leading out Hayter until Mohorič started his sprint from behind the duo, exerting as much power as possible on the bumpy finish into Labin’s old town and holding off the 21-year-old North American to the line for the victory.
The Slovenian’s GC ambitions were extinguished on stage 1 after he crashed more than 3km out from the finish, leaving him still over a minute down on Sheffield in GC even with the bonus seconds gained.
Results
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