Tour of the Alps: Geoghegan Hart wins stage 4

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Tao Geoghegan Hart (Team Sky) claimed his second victory of the week and Pavel Sivakov retained the overall lead as Team Sky maintained their grip on the Tour of the Alps despite a determined volley of attacks from Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) on stage 4 to Cles.

Nibali began his sustained offensive four kilometres from the summit of the Passo Predaia, and while Chris Froome (Team Sky) managed to bring his first two accelerations to heel, the Sicilian's onslaught ultimately proved too much for all bar Sivakov, Geoghegan Hart and Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe).

That quartet crested the summit of the Predaia with a lead of half a minute over the chasers, and while Astana cut the deficit to just 10 seconds at the base of the descent as they tried to salvage Jan Hirt's second place in the overall standings, the gap widened all over again on the short, sharp climb towards Cles, where Nibali unleashed another set of rasping accelerations that troubled the Sky duo but never definitively distanced them. Froome would ultimately bring the chasers home some 40 seconds down on the four leaders.

Geoghegan Hart was canny enough to set an even pace that helped keep Sivakov in contact with Nibali over the top of the Predaia, and the Russian returned the favour when the road flattened out on the final approach to Cles. He rode strongly to peg back Majka's attack in the finale and tee up Geoghegan Hart for the four-man sprint.

On Monday's opening stage, Geoghegan Hart landed the first win of his professional career, and he sprinted with confidence here, hitting the front early and holding off Nibali to take the spoils. Majka came home in third ahead of Sivakov, who keeps the cyclamen jersey. Geoghen Hart is now second overall, 27 seconds down on his teammate.

"I'm not getting used to it but it's good to make [winning] a habit," Geoghegan Hart said afterwards. "It's something I intend to keep doing in the future. I'm more than happy to continue in this way here in the Tour of the Alps."

How it unfolded

A rapid start to proceedings saw the an average speed of 48kph in the opening hour, and some 35km had passed before a break took shape, with Antonio Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) forging clear in the company of Andrey Zeits (Astana), Alexis Vuillermoz (AG2R La Mondiale), Aldemar Reyes (Manzana Postobon), Antonio Nibali (Bahrain Merida), Elie Gesbert (Arkea-Samsic), Sergio Samitier (Euskadi-Murias), Edoardo Zardini (Neri Sottoli-Selle Italia) and Alex Aramburu (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA).

The escapees led over the category 1 Forcella di Brez, building a maximum buffer of 2:40, but Team Sky's determined pursuit meant that they were never likely to be granted the freedom to chase stage honours.

The gap was down to 30 seconds on the lower slopes of the Passo Predaia, where Bahrain-Merida took up the pace-making on behalf of Vincenzo Nibali, and the break's hopes were definitively doomed when his brother Antonio dropped back to help out in their collective effort.

The remnants of the break were caught a little over 4km from the top of the Predaia, and this was the signal for Vincenzo Nibali to commence his forcing. His first two efforts were controlled by Froome, but when Nibali kicked again with 2.6km of the climb remaining, the four-time Tour winner swung over, leaving the chase to his two younger Sky teammates, Geoghegan Hart and Sivakov.

"I think Pavel and I knew our plan, we're in an amazing situation where we have a certain Chris Froome also helping us, which is an incredible honour for Pavel and me," Geoghegan Hart said. "It's my first race ever with him so it's really special. We just got in our rhythm, we knew we've got the legs and we knew we just had to be with Nibali at the top because, as everyone knows, Vincenzo goes pretty fast downhill. That was the plan and it was good in the end."

Nibali continued to launch accelerations all the way to the summit, with only Majka, Geoghegan Hart and Sivakov able to follow his pace. At times, it looked as though Sivakov was flagging, but Geoghegan Hart’s smooth pace-making saw him make his way back up to Nibali on each occasion.

Majka led the quartet over the summit with 20km to go, where they held a lead of half a minute over a group containing Froome and Hirt. Nibali, as is his wont, continued to pile on the pressure on the descent, but come the base of the short climb to Cles, home of 1988 world champion Maurizio Fondriest, the chasers had closed to within touching distance of the four leaders.

Not for long. Another vicious Nibali acceleration put daylight between the groups once again and even briefly distanced Geoghegan Hart, but the Londoner held his composure – and his pace – to bridge back up once again.

Towards the top of the climb, Majka made an acceleration of his own, and the Pole crested the summit with 3km to go with a lead of 5 seconds over his breakaway companions. Nibali maintained a watching brief on the plateau that followed, allowing Geoghegan Hart and, primarily, Sivakov, claw their way back up to Majka, inch by inch.

Majka was eventually caught with 600 metres to go, and it was immediately apparent that this would be a four-man sprint in name alone. Only Nibali and Geoghegan Hart had sufficient energy left to contest the win, and it was the Sky rider who emerged victorious.

"I'm feeling well but these boys from Sky are very good," said Nibali, who will line out at Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday. "The Sky riders did well to close down Rafal and in the sprint, Tao is faster than me and I couldn’t do anything. He's a predestinato. He's got freedom here and he’s done well."

Sky occupy to the top two places on GC ahead of Friday's concluding stage, which brings the gruppo over the San Genesio to Bolzano. Majka lies third overall at 31 seconds, with Nibali a further two seconds back in fourth, while Hirt drops to fifth at 48 seconds.

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