Tadej Pogacar secures repeat overall win at Tirreno-Adriatico

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Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) triumphed in a close sprint finish on the final stage of Tirreno-Adriatico while Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) sealed the overall victory in the race for the second year in a row, finishing safely in the peloton in San Benedetto del Tronto.

German sprinter Bauhaus came from a long way back in the messy headwind sprint at the end of the 159-kilometre stage. He rode the wheel of Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ), and then shot into clear space on the right-hand side of the road in the final 50 metres to edge out Giacomo Nizzolo (Israel-Premier Tech) and Kaden Groves (BikeExchange-Jayco) at the line.

Half a wheel length separated the first two, with Groves centimetres behind the Italian to take third just ahead of Davide Cimolai (Cofidis). The win is the first of 2022 for Bauhaus, and the fourth at a WorldTour race in his career.

"I feel amazing. We always believed I can win," Bauhaus said afterwards. "I had a difficult winter, but I knew I'm in good shape and the team did really good today.

"We knew it's a headwind, so the plan was to come late. Jan [Tratnik], Jasha [Sütterlin], Heino [Haussler] did amazing to bring me in a good position for the last narrowing before the left-right corner. Then I followed Démare, and I saw a gap on the right side and just went for it."

Alexander Kristoff (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert) had launched the sprint, going long at 250 metres from the line before fading well before the finish. Nizzolo and Cimolai came past first at 150 to go, while Démare was stuck up against the barriers beside the Norwegian.

Further back, in fourth wheel behind Kristoff, Bauhaus spotted the empty side of the road and jumped across, moving past his rivals – including Nizzolo, who had looked set to claim victory – to edge the result at the line.

"I said this morning to the guys it would be really nice to have a win like this on my palmares after the Dauphine and Tour of Poland," Bauhaus added.

"Our climbers did fantastic yesterday, they showed they are on a super high level with three guys in the top 10 also now for the GC is amazing for our team. Today was a great win for us. It's a super big race."

Pogačar's win, his seventh of the season, came with the ciclamino points jersey and the white young rider's jersey. Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) took second overall at 1:52, while Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) rounded out the final podium at 2:33. Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo) took the green mountains jersey.

How it unfolded

After the hills and mountains of the previous three days at Tirreno-Adriatico, the race headed to the Adriatic coast and the familiar location of San Benedetto del Tronto for its conclusion.

Rather than the usual individual time trial, which was moved to stage 1, though, the race closed with 159-kilometre stage for the sprinters, taking in a hilly loop west of the town before five laps of a pan-flat circuit to finish.

A crash in the peloton disrupted the early running, but it didn't stop three breakaway riders from jumping away inside the opening 10 kilometres. Manuele Boaro (Astana Qazaqstan) was joined out front by Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè), and Jorge Arcas (Movistar) in the move.

As Alpecin-Fenix and Groupama-FDJ set to work at the head of the peloton, the lead trio extended their advantage up to three minutes as they traversed the Marche foothills of the Apennines that marked the first half of the day.

The situation remained stable as the riders tackled the rest of the hills, including the day's only classified climb at Ripatransone. There, three minutes up on the peloton, Manuele Boaro led the break over the final climb of the race, before heading down the descent back into San Benedetto del Tronto.

There, the riders hit the 14.5-kilometre finishing circuit, with the breakaway trio passing through at 2:20 up on the peloton. A mixture of sprint teams, including DSM, Jumbo-Visma, Alpecin-Fenix, and Groupama-FDJ worked on the front to keep the break in hand.

The early laps around the finishing circuit brought little to report, barring the peloton gradually dragging the break closer. The gap held at two minutes for the first passes of the line, before falling to 55 seconds, and then 30 seconds at two laps to go.

The repeat laps meant that the riders got a good luck at the run to the finish, which included two right-hand bends between the three- and two-kilometre marks, as well as a roundabout and chicane onto and off a narrower road at a kilometre to go.

Tonelli was the first man to be brought back from the break at 15 kilometres to go, leaving Boaro and Arcas to keep the fight going into the final lap. The pair kept going until they were finally dragged back at eight kilometres to go, whereupon the race was fully handed over to the sprint squads.

The final run-in wasn't controlled by any one team, with various squads flowing to the front as the peloton sped towards the line. The final kilometre was equally disorganised, though Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert and Israel-Premier Tech headed up the peloton.

Kristoff was first to go, and for a few seconds it looked as though Nizzolo would capitalise on his rival's early jump. However, it was Bauhaus was got to the line quickest, nipping ahead of his fellow sprinters in the closing metres of the 2022 Tirreno-Adriatico.