Sagan prevails in Chieti

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Peter Sagan took advantage of Liquigas-Cannondale's hard work and won the mountainous fourth stage of Tirenno-Adriatico, while RadioShack-Nissan's Christopher Horner crossed the finish line in the five-man lead group to take the leader's jersey.

Astana's Roman Kreuziger and Vincenzo Nibali of Liquigas-Cannondale took second and third on the stage, which featured a taxing uphill finale into Chieti's city center. Danilo Di Luca (Acqua & Sapone) and Horner rounded out the lead group which contested the stage four finale.

Kreuziger moved up to second overall, only seven seconds behind Horner, while Cameron Meyer (GreenEdge) holds third on general classification at 13 seconds.

Matthew Goss (GreenEdge), who held the blue leader's jersey since stage one, lost contact with the leaders on the day's many climbs and surrendered the general classification lead to Horner.

Liquigas-Cannondale worked hard for the win, leading the chase virtually the whole day and bringing its strong riders into position. Yet it was not team captain Nibali who won, but 22-year-old Slovakian champion Sagan, who shot past his fading teammate in the final meters to secure the victory.

"Today we gave so much as a team and it was important to win," said Sagan. "The best option for the team's victory today was [Vincenzo] Nibali and I tried to encourage it until the last [moment]. I pushed on the final climb, then I slowed down for him. When Di Luca attacked I closed the gap, then I thought Vincent was able to deal with our opponents.

"On the final straight I heard they were catching up and at that moment I thought only of the good of the team: not winning would be a great sin. I'm sorry for Vincent, we are a united group and among us there are absolutely no problems. Tomorrow we will have a hard stage and I'll be at his disposal to help him."

"Needless to say that today I wanted success, to try to gain precious seconds on the general classification," said Nibali. "The final was very animated and we, as a team, had a double opportunity: I had to win or Peter to reward the good work of our teammates. When he (Sagan) passed me I did not expect it, of course, but I also believe Peter's words and that it was in good faith."

Horner finished fifth on the stage, in the same time as the winner., which was enough to catapult him from eighth place to first. The 40-year-old said that he had been eying this stage all along, and felt early on that he had good chances.

“Before the race today I thought for sure I might have the leader’s jersey at the end of the day,” Horner said on the team's website. “All the team was very important to me today. They’ve worked very hard for me in the past few days and this stage was a goal for us. My legs are feeling very good, so certainly I have a shot at winning the overall.”

GreenEdge was happy to see best young rider Cameron Meyer move up to third overall, and didn't mourn the loss of the overall lead. “We weren’t interested in defending the jersey today,” admitted GreenEdge sports director Matt White. “Gossy was never going to hang onto the lead. None of the sprinters hung on today. Given our lack of interest in defending the jersey, we were pretty relaxed today.”

A long day in the saddle

The race's longest stage (252km) got off to an early start, with the riders rolling out of Amelia at 9:15am. Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha) and Thomas Löfkvist (Sky) did not start.

Seven riders went out on the attack only eight km into the stage: Lloyd Mondory (AG2R La Mondiale), Stefano Pirazzi and Angelo Pagani (Colnago-CSF Inox), Pablo Urtasun Perez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Kevin Hulsmans (Farnese Vini-Selle Italia), Pavel Brutt (Katusha Team) and Manuele Boaro (Team Saxo Bank). They quickly built up a sizeable lead, up to 10 minutes after only 75 km.

Sixty kilometers later, after enjoying a maximum advantage of nearly 12 minutes, the gap had dropped dramatically to just over four minutes and continued to go down.

Snow and cold had caused the race organisers to change today's route, taking out the Passo Lanciano climb and substituting the Valico della Forchetta. Mountains leader Pirazzi took top honours there, securing a nearly insurmountable lead in the classification for the race, but with 36km to go and still one more climb, the gap was down to a minute and a half.

Lampre-ISD, Colombia-Coldeportes and Omega Pharma-QuickStep combined their efforts at the head of the peloton to bring the gap down. The lead group shrank to four, as Mondory, Pagani and Hulsmans were unable to keep up any longer, although Pagani later caught up again.

With a little more than 20 km to go, Brutt pulled away from his escape companions and tried to get away on a curving ascent. But the peloton was less than a minute behind and gaining fast, with Liquigas-Cannondale's Oss leading the train.

Boaro took off in an attempt to catch Brutt as the peloton came closer and closer. Meanwhile, race leader Matt Goss (GreenEdge) was finally unable to hold the pace in the peloton, dropping further and further back on the undulating terrain.

Boaro was caught by the Liquigas-Cannondale-led field with about 15km to go, and Brutt had only about 20 seconds. Three kilometers later he, too, was caught. Astana's Dimitriy Muravyev was the next to try his luck, but with 9km to go he was caught and passed by Euskaltel's Mikel Landa, and the Astana rider faded back into the field.

A crash in the middle of the field knocked down a handful of riders, including yesterday's stage winner Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky), and split the field on the stage's penultimate climb. Again, Liquigas-Cannondale led the field past the escapee with 6.5km to go.

The final climb of the day started with five kilometers to go, and BMC moved to the front of the peloton to position defending Tirreno-Adriatico champion Cadel Evans for the final ascent to the finish. With two kilometers remaining the real climbing started, with gradients up to 15 percent. BMC's Alessandro Ballan pulled off at the base of the steep pitch, leaving George Hincapie to set the tempo for Evans.

It was slow going on the steep parcours in Chieti, with the field becoming increasingly smaller with every pedal stroke. Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil-DCM) attacked with 1.5 kilometers remaining, but was caught by Danilo Di Luca (Acqua & Sapone), who led a small group powering their way up the narrow streets. Di Luca was then passed by Peter Sagan, and the two rode together under the flamme rouge, which was also served as the stage's final KOM.

A high-powered group of Sagan, Kreuziger, Nibali, Di Luca and Horner had emerged at the head of affairs to fight it out for the win as the road levelled off in the final kilometer. Astana's Kreuziger shot out around the leaders and took a lead on the run-in to the finish. Nibali responded and gave his all, but Sagan came around his teammate and went on to win, with Kreuziger passing Nibali for second.