Settimana Coppi e Bartali: Mathieu van der Poel wins stage 4

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Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin-Fenix secured a hard-fought victory on stage 4 at Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali. 

After muscling his way into an earlier breakaway that was caught inside the final 10km of the race, van der Poel had enough left in the tank to sprint for the day's win ahead of runner-up Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) and Remy Mertz (Bingoal Pauwels) in third place in Montecatini Terme.

Van der Poel finished third at Milan-San Remo last week in what was an impressive return to racing after working on rehabilitation from a lingering back injury through the early months of 2022. 

In another display of strength and early-season form at Coppi e Bartali, van der Poel bridged across to an early-race breakaway and then made his own solo attack on the circuit's Vico climb before being caught on the last lap by the peloton led by Israel-Premier Tech.

Mauro Schmid (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) and Nicola Conci (Italy) counter-attacked but they too were reeled back in by the bunch and van der Poel proved the strongest rider of the day taking the sprint in Montecatini.

With no change to the top three in the overall classification, Eddie Dunbar (Ineos Grenadiers) leads the GC into the final stage with his teammate Ben Tulett at nine seconds back and Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) at 24 seconds.

How it unfolded

Stage 4 at Coppi e Bartali offered the peloton 158.7km of hilly circuit racing. The route began with three shorter 15km circuits that started and finished at Montecatini with a climb over the Vico (3.1km at 5.4 per cent) on each lap. 

The fourth lap was a longer version of the circuit at 40km and featured an ascent of the Goraiolo (15km with an average grade of 4.8 per cent). The race then routed back onto the original short 15km circuits for the final laps five through eight, including the Vico ascent, before finishing in Montecatini.

A six-rider breakaway emerged early in the stage that included Luc Wirtgen (Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB), Samuele Rivi (Eolo-Kometa), Andrea Piras (Beltrami TSA-Tre Colli), Andrea Garosio (Biesse Carrera), Emil Dima (Giotti Victoria-Savini Due) and Paul Wright (MG K Vis-Colors For Peace-VPM). They pushed their lead out to three minutes but Ineos Grenadiers, protecting Eddie Dunbar in the overall leader's jersey along with runner-up Ben Tulett, brought the gap down to a more manageable 2:30 60km into the stage.

After the ascent of the mid-race Goraiolo, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) livened the race even more with an attack 100km into the stage, upon reaching the start of the final four shorter circuits. 

The Dutchman quickly crossed the gap and joined the six initial breakaway riders, adding much needed horsepower to their efforts, and pushing the lead out to 3:30 on the chasing field.

The high pace across the punchy circuits shed Piras, Dima and Wright from the breakaway with only van der Poel, Wirtgen, Rivi and Garosio at the front of the race. Although the numbers reduced in the breakaway, the quartet managed to maintain a two-minute gap on the field pulled by BikeExchange-Jayco inside 30km, two circuits, from the finish line.

Their gap was slashed in half with 20km to go, and sensing an imminent catch, van der Poel launched a solo attack with 11km to go, at first holding a lead of 35 seconds. His time off the front came to an end, as he was caught inside 10km from the line on the final circuit.

Stage 1 winner Mauro Schmid (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) and Nicola Conci (Italy) counter-attacked and quickly gained 10 seconds on the chasing field. They held a slim lead in the closing 4km as the main field barrelled toward the finish behind.

Into the last kilometre, Schmid and Conci desperately pushed on the pedals but the pair were caught as the bunch sprint began, with van der Poel still strong and coming down the centre of the road to take another impressive victory.