Pogacar takes control of Tirreno-Adriatico on Monte Carpegna

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Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) took control of Tirreno-Adriatico with a dominant victory on the queen stage of race over Monte Carpegna.

The Slovenian soloed to victory in Carpegna having attacked on the day's second ascent of the steep climb, shortly after passing through a corner bedecked in tributes to legendary climber Marco Pantani.

On the climb Pantani used to hone his form ahead of Grand Tours, Pogačar raced away in a manner reminiscent of the Italian, simply jumping away from an elite GC group three kilometres from the top to no response from his companions.

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious), Enric Mas (Movistar), and Richie Porte (Ineos Grenadiers) were the men he left behind, none of whom had a hope of issuing a counter to the 23-year-old's acceleration.

Half an hour after his initial attack, Pogačar crossed the line alone, his authority stamped on the race and the blue leader's jersey surely in bag for the second year running.

Vingegaard and Landa rounded out the podium, the Dane winning the sprint for second at 1:04 down on Pogačar, while Porte took fourth place at 1:34. Mas rolled home over five minutes down after a nasty crash on the descent.

"First thank you to all the team again," Pogačar said after the finish. "Really amazing work and they bring me to the last climb, and I had good legs so yeah, we decided to go for it. Marc did a good pace at the start, there were some attacks, and I decided to go to my own pace at the top.

"When Remco suffered a bit on the first climb, I still had Rafał [Majka] and Marc [Soler]. I felt good but I still knew that there were strong riders with me and with 45 minutes on that kind of climb, [a gap] can be gone really fast. So, I kept concentrating on the last climb and the other riders.

"I tried my best to get warm because it was super cold today. I'm super happy to take the win because the team was working so hard the last few days, so it's really hats off to them. When the guys are pulling all day into the headwind for 200 kilometres every day, to take the stage win on such an important day is a really good feeling.

"It's one more stage so we still need to keep calm and we'll see tomorrow. I hope that Pascal [Ackermann] recovers from these days hard work to do the sprint tomorrow but anyway we're going to be happy."

After taking the 36th victory of his short career, Pogačar now leads the race overall by 1:52 from Vingegaard, with Landa in third at 2:33. Porte lies in fourth at 2:44. Pogačar is also the leader of the points and young rider's classifications, while Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo) sewed up the mountains classification after a day in the breakaway.

How it unfolded

The penultimate stage of Tirreno-Adriatico would be the most decisive day of the race, bringing with it the biggest climbs – two ascents of Monte Carpegna in Marche, a favourite of Marco Pantani.

The 215-kilometre day, running from Apecchio to Carpegna, featured a hilly but not hard opening 175 kilometres before taking on two climbs of the mountain, each measuring in at six kilometres long and an average gradient of 9.9 per cent.

A downhill run from Apecchio ensured a quick start to the stage. No move managed to stick out front until the riders hit the unclassified climb after 25 kilometres when former green mountains jersey holder Davide Bais (Eolo-Kometa) got away with Benoît Cosenfroy (AG2R Citroën), Marco Haller (Bora-Hansgrohe), and Alexander Konychev (BikeExchange-Jayco).

The quartet held a slim lead after jumping away as several teams made chase behind, and before long five more men had jumped across to form the final nine-man break of the day

World champion Julian Alaphilippe was there along with QuickStep-AlphaVinyl teammate Mikkel Honoré, plus the Movistar duo Alex Aranburu and Lluis Mas and green jersey holder Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo).

The group quickly built a gap of four minutes, while the first big moment of the day would come on the only classified climb before Monte Carpegna, at Mombaroccio 88 kilometres in. There, Bais and Simmons did battle, with the American prevailing to extend his KOM lead to seven points with 15 up for grabs on both ascents of Carpegna.

Little happened in the hilly mid-section of the race, with the break's advantage staying stable at around the four-minute mark for much of the stage. There was bad luck for several riders, though, including Ineos pair Jhonatan Narváez and Elia Viviani, Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan), and Tim Wellens (Lotto Souda), each of whom was forced to abandon during the stage.

On the uphill run to the first ascent of Carpegna, the UAE Team Emirates, Jumbo-Visma and Bahrain Victorious-led peloton slowly whittled down the break's advantage to just 1:40 at the base of the climb.

By then, Bais, Honoré, and Konychev had already been dropped from the move, while Cosnefroy was the next to go a kilometre into the climb. Mas followed after a hard stint of work for Aranburu, before Alaphilippe and then, finally, Aranburu dropped back two kilometres from the top.

Back in the peloton, Evenepoel was in trouble, losing contact with the peloton a full 34 kilometres from the finish on the steep slopes of the narrow, tree-lined climb. By the top, the Belgian GC hopeful was 1:20 behind the peloton, accompanied by Alaphilippe as he sought to limit the damage.

Simmons, having taken an additional 15 points over the top, was caught midway down the descent by a much whittled-down peloton. Bahrain Victorious, with Pello Bilbao briefly on the attack, led the way onto the climb for the second time, with Landa's upping of the pace a kilometre later seeing several drop from the rear of the group.

The Spaniard took Pogačar, Vingegaard and Mas with him as Porte led the chase behind, the Australian eventually working his way to the front at 3.5 kilometres from the top of the climb.

Just as he got there, though, it was time for Pogačar to go. Already in the race lead with a 45-second advantage on any of the men riding with him, he sought to stamp his authority on the race further, accelerating away with ease on the double-digit gradients.

Almost immediately, the stage was over. There was never a suggestion that Pogačar would be caught, and so it proved as he soloed to win unhindered, with his second Tirreno-Adriatico victory in as many years now surely secured.