Coppi e Bartali: Archie Ryan wins stage 4 with late attack

Archie Ryan (EF Education-EastPost) secured the victory on stage 4 at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali. The 22-year-old Irishman made a late-race attack with 5km to go and narrowly held off the chase behind to take the win ahead of runner-up Jenno Berckmoes (Lotto Dstny) and third-placed Adam Ťoupalík (TDT-Unibet) on an uphill finish in Brisighella.

Koen Bouwman (Visma-Lease a Bike) finished seventh on the day and continues to lead the overall into the stage 5 finale on Saturday.

The fourth and penultimate stage at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali offered four large circuits and a shorter finishing circuit in and around Brisighella. The 150.7km route included three ascents of the Il Monticino before a hilly short-loop finale.

An early breakaway emerged inside the opening 20km that included Alec Segaert (Lotto Dstny), Marco Brenner (Tudor), Hartthijs de Vries (TDT-Unibet), Marco Palomba (General Store-Essegibi-F.Lli Curia), Gianluca Brambilla (Q36.5), Filippo d'Aiuto (General Store-Essegibi-F.Lli Curia), Matteo Malucelli (JCL Team UKYO), Jose Ramon Muñiz (Petrolike), Jeferson Armando Ruiz Acuña (GW Erco Shimano), and Emanuele Ansaloni (Technipes #inEmiliaRomagna).

The eight riders extended their lead over the first and second ascents of Il Monticino, building it to nearly three minutes.

Just ahead of the third ascent of the Il Monticino, the breakaway split apart, with Segaert attacking the group. Behind, three riders gave chase with De Vries, Brenner and Palomba 20 seconds behind, while the six remaining riders were distanced by 36 seconds.

On the climb, Brenner bridged across to Segaert and then attacked to go solo with 26km to go, with Segaert losing ground over the top. The chasers, too, as Brambilla bridged across to De Vries, but the pair were still 50 seconds behind Brenner.

Brenner continued to build his lead on the fourth and final climb over the Il Monticino, gaining 37 seconds on Segaert, with the main field closing in at less than a minute behind.

Racing into the last 10km, Brenner still held 14 seconds, the lone rider out front of the main field on the run-in to the finish line.

Brenner was caught inside 5km to go, which led the way for Archie Ryan (EF Education-EastPost) to go on the attack. He jumped out of what remained of the field and gained a slim 10-second lead heading into the uphill finish, all he needed to hold off the chase and win in Brisighella.

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