Tirreno-Adriatico: Olav Kooij wins stage 4 as breakaway caught in final metres

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Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) claimed a last-ditch bunch sprint win on a rainsoaked stage 4 of Tirreno-Adriatico, as a severely reduced peloton snapped up the remnants of a day-long break and late attacker Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) agonisingly close to the line.

Second was Rick Pluimers (Tudor Pro Cycling), with Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) claiming third. Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) retained the overall lead for a fourth straight day.

A series of splits in the final third of an action-packed 190-kilometre stage from Norcia to Trasacco, including one six-rider GC attack featuring race leader Ganna and key rival Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), all failed to consolidate. Then, however, a dangerous move by Healy with four kilometres to go, scorching across to the remnants of the early break, forced Ineos to chase hard behind.

Once Healy and co. had been caught almost at the last moment possible, the widely expected bunch sprint finally materialised, but with such a small lead group, it was a very uncontrolled affair.

Young French sprinter Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) opened up the dash for the line from fourth in the string and Van der Poel quickly overhauled him. However, Kooij came dashing up on the right-hand side of the group to claim his third win of the season, and first-ever stage victory in Tirreno-Adriatico.

"I really fought for it," Kooij, who had been caught on the wrong side of one of the bigger late splits, said afterwards. "We set the pace over the main climb and I thought I'd make it because we kept the break close, but on the plateau, we were surprised a bit by echelons."

"That set us on the back foot and sometimes I thought we'd come back, others I didn't believe it any more. But the guys did great work and once we were there I knew I had to switch on and go for it."

Sick in the UAE Tour, but second in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, Kooij said "That [illness] was a little setback, but I had a good reset in Kuurne and I was looking forward to this race."

"I'd ridden it once before, but I really wanted to win a stage here and I'm super happy that after a hard fight today, I got it."

How it Unfolded

Despite looking like a sprinters' stage on paper, the peloton had barely swung into the collective saddle before they immediately faced a serious test, the 14-kilometre Forca della Civita - and in a foretaste of what proved to be an entertainingly volatile stage, race leader Ganna was amongst those to try to get away early.

However, the first break actually to consolidate came thanks to Mark Donovan (Q36.5) and Roger Adriá (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and the Briton and Catalan had made over the summit of the Forca, only to be reeled, an hour-long period of skirmishing then ensued.

Such a fraught start all but guaranteed only a strong break would survive and when finally a five-man move containing Jonas Rutsch (Intermarché-Wanty), Jorge Arcas (Movistar), Gijs Leemreize (Picnic-PostNL), Mirco Maestri (Polti-VisitMalta) and William Blume Levy (Uno-X Mobility) emerged, it quickly gained an impressive gap of six minutes as stage 4 headed towards the main, mid-stage ascent of the day, the Valico la Crocetta.

Rutsch, 1:52 behind Ganna on GC that morning, briefly became race leader on the road, but UAE Team Emirates kept up a strong pace behind though, causing both stage 2 winner Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) and fellow fastman Dylan Groenwegen (Jayco-AUIAa) to get dropped. Not only that, but after a long haul up to the summit of Valica la Crocetta, the quintet's advantage had halved, too.

Rather than break and bunch trundling along towards another sprint finish - as the much flatter terrain made look extremely likely - around 80 kilometres to go the drama abruptly ratcheted up considerably thanks to a series of echelons. First on a windswept plateau, a lead group of 30 riders, including Tom Pidcock (Q36.5), Ganna  - yet again - and key rival Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) forged ahead, with GC contender Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech), 2020 Tirreno-Adriatico winner Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike), and, crucially, sprinters Magnier and eventual stage winner Kooij all left trailing. 

The stage then splintered further as a Ganna-led break briefly went clear from the lead group, also containing Laurence De Plus, Ayuso and his UAE teammates Isaac del Toro and Felix Großschartner as well as Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ). But while Bahrain Victorious quickly put paid to that very dangerous move by Ganna, 30 kilometres from the line Yates' group was still the bones of a minute behind the Italian race leader's main group.

Coming through the finish for the first time of three, the five breakaway leaders - Rutsch, Arcas, Leemreize, Maestri and Blume Levy - still enjoyed a 30-second advantage on the Ganna group, only for Rutsch to crash after all that effort on a sharp, rainsoaked lefthand bend. Ineos were still hellbent on keeping Yates and co at bay, though, and all but snapped up the stage leaders on a short sharp drag of a climb. The British squad were getting scant support, though, and thanks to a concerted push by Soudal-QuickStep for Magnier, the two main groups re-fused just as the race swept through the finish for a second last time.

Once again, it seemed like a bunch sprint would be a virtual certainty and once again restless GC contenders and all-rounders all but wrecked the narrative. A very active Healy and Van der Poel both made attempts to bridge across to the remnants of the early break on a sharp little climb midway through the final local loop and while Van der Poel was sucked back in, Healy eventually made his repeated attacks stick with just two kilometres to go. 

The Irishman's gutsy late effort breathed a new spark of life into a break just seconds ahead of the bunch and by now only containing Maestri and Levy, only for the lead group to engulf the three riders within sight of the finishing gantry, and give Kooij the chance to snatch the hardest-fought of bunch sprint wins.

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