Michele Scarponi (Androni Giocattoli) won the fourth stage at Tirreno-Adriatico on Saturday with an audacious attack on the climb to the finish in Chieti and so took control of the week-long stage race.

The Italian, overall winner at Tirreno-Adriatico last year and so wearing number 1, surged away from the peloton on the twisting climb up to the finish in Chieti. He caught and blew past the remains of the seven-rider break and then opened an impressive gap on the rest of the overall favourites.

Benoit Vaugrenard (Francaise des Jeux) won the sprint from the chase group and thought he'd won the stage, and put his arms up in celebration but he was 14 seconds behind Scarponi. He could be consoled with the fact that he had moved into second overall.

Leonardo Bertagnolli (Androni Giocattoli) was third, also at 14 seconds. Thanks to his late attack, Scarponi took the race leader's azzurra blue jersey. He leads Vaugrenard by 18 seconds, with Bertagnolli third at 20 seconds.

Seven hours in the saddle

The 243km fourth stage was the longest in this year's Tirreno-Adriatico and saw riders up early for a pasta breakfast and a 9:35 start. They went on to spend seven hours in the saddle.

The peloton kept the early attacks under check through Pescara but then seven riders got away after 34km as the route followed the Adriatic coast.

The attack included Rubén Pérez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Vasil Kiryienka (Caisse d'Epargne), Maarten Wynants (Quick Step), Marco Frapporti (Colnago), Paolo Longo Borghini (ISD-Neri) and Vladimir Efimkin (AG2R).

Somewhat surprisingly Filippo Pozzato (Katusha) was also there. He worked a lot on the front setting the tempo, perhaps looking for a hard day in the saddle as training for Milan-San Remo, as much as for a chance of victory and some television time.

"It was a good test before Milan-San Remo and a good chance to try and win a stage, although I saw that Kiryienka was the strongest on the climb," Pozzato said after the stage. "I noticed I got a lot of support along the road, especially going through L'Aquila. I felt honoured to have ridden through the area that was so badly affected by the earthquake showing the Italian flag. This breakaway attempt was for the people who were caught up in it."

The break still had three minutes as the race approached Chieti, with 25km left to race. However they were a tough, largely uphill 25 kilometres and the break looked doomed as soon as Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) launched the first attack from the bunch.

When Vino was caught, Jose Serpa Perez (Androni Giocattoli) had a go but he crashed on corner and was passed by the bunch. Enrico Gasparotto (Astana) had a dig but then Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) went hard and it was clearly an important move. Scarponi knew it and soon went after him and quickly went past him and powered on alone.

The twisting streets in the centre of Chieti made for a confusing and testing finish but Scarponi knew what he was doing and carefully paced his effort on the steeps section before the road eased in the final three kilometres.

What was left of the bunch caught Nibali, Frapporti and Kiryienka before the line and in the confusion, Benoit Vaugrenard thought he'd won until he saw Scarponi celebrating with his soigneur and team manager Gianni Savio. His disappointment must have hurt as much as the climb to the finish.

Scarponi pulled on the azzurra blue leader's jersey but now he and his team face the difficult job of defending his slim 18-second lead. However he did manage to distance some rivals with his aggressive ride. Stefano Garzelli (Acqua & Sapone) and World Champion Cadel Evans (BMC) have emerged as his biggest threats. They are respectively fourth and sixth at 24 and 26 seconds. Michael Rogers (BMC-Columbia) is ninth at 29 seconds, while Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) is 11th at 31 seconds.

Stage one winner Linus Gerdemann (Milram) has slipped down to 25th at 1:06, while Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) lost almost three minutes at the end of the long stage and is now out of contention and down to 45th overall at 3:04.

Fortunately for Androni Giocattoli, Sunday's fifth stage from Chieti to Colmurano has been shortened from 234km to 216km due to poor road conditions after recent bad weather. One of the toughest climbs has been cut out but the stage still ends with a short but 15% gradient climb to the finish.