Tirreno-Adriatico: Poels wins in Castelraimondo

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Wout Poels took an impressive solo victory in Castelraimondo on the fourth stage of Tirreno-Adriatico, his first since joining Team Sky this season. Poels’ former teammate Rigoberto Uran (Etixx-QuickStep) won the sprint for second place, 14 seconds behind, with Joaquim Rodríguez (Team Katusha) rounding out the top three. Poels moves into the lead of the general classification ahead of Urán.

The Dutchman made the definitive move at the summit of the final climb, making the most of the technical descent to distance the other general classification contenders. Katusha’s Giampaolo Caruso initiated the move, going off the front on the lower slopes of the final climb. Caruso could sense the group close behind and as he glanced over his shoulder to check their proximity, Poels darted up his left-hand side.

Poels sliced his way down the descent and amassed a 20-second lead over the chasers. The group closed him down on the final run-in but the damage had been done on the climb and it was all about minimising the damage.

“It was the perfect timing. I was looking towards the bigger riders like Contador and Nibali but I had some good legs so I thought that I would attack at the top of the climb and then you only have to do the downhill so it worked pretty good,” Poels said after the stage.

Race leader Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) was dropped on the final ascent, allowing Poels to assume his role in the blue jersey. He now holds a 17-second advantage over Urán in the overall classification and he says he’s ready to fight for it tomorrow.

“I’m in really good shape so I’m not really afraid of the stage of tomorrow. I’m looking forward to wearing the leader’s jersey. It’s really nice.”

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How it happened

After a couple of days for the sprinters, stage 4 of Tirreno-Adriatico saw the onus being put on the climbers and overall contenders. At 218 kilometres, it is the longest stage of the seven-day race and the three classified climbs – including the Poggio San Romulado – ensured it would be a tough day out. Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) began the day in the leader’s blue jersey after a commanding victory in Arezzo.

Orica-GreenEdge had come to the race with hopes of victory in the opening team time trial but they were dashed when bad weather forced the organisers to change the course. The Australian team had to look elsewhere for success and they sent two men up front with Luke Durbridge and Mat Hayman going on the attack. The pair built up a substantial lead of more than seven minutes as they approached the Poggio San Romulado with 80 kilometres to go.

Nathan Haas (Cannondale-Garmin) decided to try and spice things up, setting off in chase along with Carlos Quintero (Colombia). A second group with Pedraza, Manuel Quinziato (BMC) and Miguel Angel Ruibano (Colombia) formed but neither could make any serious headway into the advantage of the Orica-GreenEdge riders.

There was a moment of worry for Tinkoff-Saxo and the defending champion Alberto Contador, as the Spaniard seemingly got caught up in another rider’s crash. A Bardiani rider went down in front of Contador on a corner and while he stayed up he did have to stop with a mechanical. The two escapees also looked to have gone down in mysterious circumstances, with a tear in the shorts of Hayman and Durbridge appearing to have blood on his ear.

Whatever happened, Hayman looked the stronger of the two leaders, with Durbridge sitting right at the top of his saddle as he began to tire with 40 kilometres still to go. The former Australian road and time trial champion finally cracked with 21 kilometres to go, leaving his teammate and compatriot to go it alone. Hayman didn’t last much longer though, eventually getting reeled in around a kilometre later.

Giovanni Visconti (Movistar) took the opportunity to launch his move on the penultimate ascent of the day, taking Michele Scarponi (Astana) and Julian Arredondo (Trek Factory Racing) with him. The trio were eventually joined by Daniel Moreno (Katusha) after they’d crested the climb, were Visconti took the points. They were eventually brought back with just over 10 kilometres still to run.

The relentless pace saw Van Avermaet swinging off the back and he was soon waving goodbye to his hopes of retaining the leader’s jersey when Caruso made his move. Caruso was unable to build a substantial advantage and Poels cannily used his slipstream to launch his own attack.

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