Rodriguez solos to victory in Chieti

Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) unleashed a fierce uphill acceleration to claim stage 5 of Tirreno-Adriatico in Chieti, while Chris Froome (Sky) did enough to unseat Michael Kwiatowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) from the overall lead and put himself in poll position to claim final victory.

At 230 kilometres, the stage was the second instalment of Tirreno-Adriatico’s long weekend, but the effects weren’t definitively felt until the short, sharp climb up Via Salomone inside the final 1500 metres, when Rodriguez careered away from the select group of contenders on a gradient of 15%.

Froome and Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) didn’t dare to try and match the ferocity of Rodriguez’s attack but they did lift the pace as they set off in pursuit, and this change in tempo was enough to see Kwiatowski deposited out the back of the leading group, while Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) also began to suffer.

Rodriguez crossed the summit with 5 seconds in hand and a shade over one kilometre still to race, but the Catalan had enough in reserve to increase his advantage over Froome and Contador in the finale. He won the stage by 8 seconds from Bauke Mollema (Blanco), who led Contador, Mauro Santambrogio (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia), Chris Horner (RadioShack Leopard) and Froome over the line.

“It was a stage that suited me but I didn’t expect it because I was feeling terrible – I thought I had bad legs, especially after all the rain we had this week,” Rodriguez said afterwards. “This win really means a lot because there were a lot of good riders here and it’s never easy to beat them.”

Froome was pleased to take control of the blue jersey and he hinted afterwards that he had used up precious energy in chasing after Contador when he attacked to take the bonus seconds on the penultimate climb of Pietragrossa, just 3 kilometres from the finish. By day’s end, Froome had yielded six seconds in bonuses to Contador but he still maintains a 20-second lead over the Spaniard ahead of the final time trial in San Benedetto del Tronto on Tuesday.

“Contador lost some time yesterday and he tried to pull it back today. It was very hard for everybody after 230km, nobody had much left in the legs,” said Froome.

A disappointed Nibali crossed the line 17 seconds down on the stage, while Kwiatowski suffered badly to concede over 40 seconds in the closing 1.5 kilometres. Nibali now lies 3rd overall, 20 seconds down on Froome, while Kwiatowski has slipped to 4th at 24 seconds.

“I paid a price for the infernal rhythm of Froome’s team in the finale,” Nibali admitted, highlighting how, yet again, Sky’s strength in numbers proved decisive at Tirreno-Adriatico. Dario Cataldo, Sergio Henao and Rigoberto Uran were the men who drove the blue jersey group over the summit of the Passo Lanciano and continued to whittle it down on the rolling run-in to the finish at Chieti.

With 6 kilometres to go, their forcing saw dangermen Moreno Moser and Peter Sagan (Cannondale) drop off the back, and although Alberto Contador was able to slip away to claim the bonus with 4.6km to go, Sky were back on the front soon afterwards to shut down a counter-attack from Roman Kreuziger (Saxo-Tinkoff) and Andrey Amador (Movistar).

“The team pulled for the last 50km and did excellent work,” said Froome, matter-of-factly. At the same time in France, Richie Porte was riding towards another prestigious victory for Sky at Paris-Nice. It seems that marginal gains add up to some big differences.

How it happened

The sun was finally shining on the Tirreno-Adriatico peloton at the start in Ortona, with the glistening Adriatic and the snow-covered Apennines providing a stunning backdrop and indicating the two facets of the 230km stage.

A total of 168 riders rolled out from the start, with Francesco Chicchi (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia) the only non-starter after struggling with a temperature overnight. Sadly Sep Vanmarcke (Blanco Pro Cycling) was also forced to quit before the 'kilometre zero' mark after crashing. He hit his knee on the ground, later tweeting that his Classics campaign could be at risk due to damaged knee bursae. Olivier Kaisen (Lotto Belisol) also retired. Later Martin Reimer (MTN Qhubeka) and mountain's classification leader Francesco Failli (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia) also retired. The Italian had been riding with a cracked rib.

After several attacks and chases nine riders got away to form the break of the day after 20km. The nine were: Valerio Agnoli (Astana), Michael Schär (BMC), Maxim Belkov (Katusha), Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Merida), Sebastian Langeveld (Orica Greenedge), Stijn Devolder (Radioshack-Leopard), Juan Antonio Flecha (Vacansoleil-DCM), Cesare Benedetti (NetApp-Endura) and Oscar Gatto (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia).

Benedetti almost crashed on a corner, lost contact and eventually sat up, leaving eight riders in the break. Their lead grew to 7:00 after 65km, with Agnoli becoming virtual race leader. However, Omega Pharma- Quick Step and Team Sky set about closing the gap, and they later received a helping hand from the Cannondale squad of Moser and Sagan.

Cunego was first over the Forchetta di Paletta climb after 91km, ahead of Flecha, Agnoli and Devolder, with the peloton at six minutes. The race average was 35.100km/h.

The long valley road via Sulmona lead around the mountains of the Majella and to the foot of the Passo Lanciano, with Cannondale Pro Cycling and Ag2r-La Mondiale now leading the peloton.

The Passo Lanciano is 12km long, with an average gradient of 8.6%. With the finish just 40km from the finish, the climb was expected to inspire attacks and Cunego decided it was time to blow apart. He quickly left the rest and crossed the summit first. However the 25-strong gruppo also accelerated on the climb, and had caught everyone else by the 1306m high summit. The gap to Cunego was just two minutes.

The Italian tried his hardest to hold his lead on the fast descent towards Chieti but with the Team Sky machine on the front – and local rider Dario Cataldo particularly impressive – the gap fell rapidly and he was swept up with a shade over 6km to race. As expected, the steep climb to the centre of Chieti would decide the stage winner.