Tirreno-Adriatico: Lucas Hamilton wins stage 4

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Lucas Hamilton (Mitchelton-Scott) took victory on stage 4 of the Tirreno-Adriatico, beating Fausto Masnada (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) in a two-man sprint.

The Australian produced a well-timed effort in the final after the two broke clear of the group of the race favourites with 7 kilometres remaining. Race leader Michael Woods (EF Pro Cycling) finished third, 10 seconds adrift, and retained the first place in the general classification.

"It's my first WorldTour win so I am super happy," Hamilton said. "I just hung on over that final climb and I was in that second group when Yates attacked ahead. When we got back on, I saw my own opportunity and with the speed and momentum we had, I was able to get away. I was very lucky to have Masnada there with me because I don't think I could have done that myself and we worked well together.

"On paper Masnada is probably faster than me so I was a bit worried about that and tried to make him do the last 500 metres or so and that worked in my favour in the end."

The first mountain stage of “the Race of the Two Seas” saw a number of attacks going off the front before the favourites battle on the final climb of Ospedaletto (7 km; 6,2%). An acceleration from Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) and a swift response from the overall leader Michael Woods crystallised a group of five riders who opened up a gap and began racing for the stage victory on the downhill towards Cascia.

The junction was soon made, however, allowing Masnada and Hamilton to sneaked out of the group on the descent. The Italian and the Australian worked together to hold to a slim lead over the chasers and Hamilton managed to take his first victory on a WorldTour stage.

"Simon is still our overall leader, so this win is a bit of a bonus but for me - it is nice to step up," Hamilton said. "I take my opportunities when I can and I am lucky to have a leader like Simon that also lets his teammates have opportunities."

How it unfolded

The climbers’ first test came on the roads of the Umbria region as the peloton slowly rolled into the Apennine Mountains. While the first 100 kilometres were still largely flat, the roads started ramping up towards the first climb of the day: Forcia di Gualdo (10.4 km; 7.4%). The first obstacle of the day was followed by an 11km plateau and then by a shorter ascent, Rifugio Perugia (3.4 km; 7%), from which a 19km downhill led to the bottom of the final climb, Ospedaletto (7 km; 6.2%). Cresting its steady slopes still required navigating an 11km downhill section to Cascia: a balancing act requiring climbing prowess and bike handling skills.

There were numerous teams interested in placing their riders in the day’s breakaway and finally Geoffrey Bouchard and Mathias Frank (AG2R La Mondiale), Davide Gabburo (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec), Manuele Boaro (Astana), Jan Tratnik (Bahrain McLaren), Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani-CSF-Faizane), Davide Ballerini (Deceuninck-Quick-Step), Marco Canola (Gazprom-Rusvelo), Kobe Goossens (Lotto Soudal), Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) and Héctor Carretero (Movistar Team) made the front group.

The breakaway set a steady tempo on the way to the first climb and built a modest 3:20 lead. Whilst Bouchard returned to the peloton, the remaining 10 started climbing and it was his teammate Frank who began dealing the cards. The Swiss rider wasn’t happy with the gap and took off early, with 59 kilometres still to go, only receiving help Carretero. Back in the bunch, Otto Vergaerde of Alpecin-Fenix started decimating the group with a hard pace set for a few minutes.

Matthews meanwhile worked his way back and proved most consistent of the chasing riders, reaching the two leaders with 55km to go. The three stuck together despite Carretero’s attempt to go solo and the Spaniard collected mountains classification points atop of the first climb, denying the Australian on the line.

The leaders were soon reinforced by Tonelli on the descent but their gap wasn’t getting any bigger and EF Pro Cycling and Ineos Grenadiers had the race well under control with only 2 minutes and 30 seconds to be made up.

There were still more climbers interested in shaking things up at that point of the race. An acceleration from Daniel Navarro (Israel Start-Up Nation) on Forcia di Gualdo was soon followed by Louis Meintjes (NTT Pro Cycling) and Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates), who managed to reel in the dropped breakaway riders and use their help to get across to the leaders. As Matthews sprinted away for the prizes available at the intermediate sprint and the second categorized climb, the trio passed Goossens, Ballerini and Boaro, dropped Gaburro on the slopes of Rifugio Perugia and made the junction on the downhill towards the final climb.

After Navarro’s ill-timed puncture only six breakaway riders arrived to the foot of the last climb but with the peloton less than a minute in arrears, the move didn’t last long and soon more attacks followed. Bruno Armirail’s attempt showed the Groupama-FDJ jersey but Antonio Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) covered the move and both came back to the group paced by Tao Geoghegan Hart. The race leader, Michael Woods, was isolated at this point but had no troubles responding to Simon Yates’ acceleration with 13 kilometres remaining.

Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) followed, while Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana) and Rafał Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) needed a bit more time to bridge across. The five began descending towards Cascia but was brought back by a larger group led by Team Sunweb and Deceuninck-Quick-Step.

A brief pause with 7 kilometres to go was music to the ears of Fausto Masnada, who launched himself in pursuit of a stage victory. The move attracted the attention of the 24-year-old Lucas Hamilton who stayed with the Italian, contributed to building a gap and then sprinted to the victory in the final 200 meters. The Australian celebrated the biggest win of his career while Woods led the chasers home and will be defending the jersey tomorrow on the final climb to Sassotetto.