Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) completed a masterclass long-range breakaway victory on stage 4 of the Tour of the Alps, attacking 80km from the finish on a brutally tough Queen stage and holding off the chasers in miserable conditions into Obertilliach.
With his first win for three years and first for Ineos Grenadiers, Arensman also moved into the overall lead of the race with one day of racing to come, building enough of an advantage to hold off a valiant effort from Michael Storer (Tudor) to defend the lead.
On a dramatic day of attacking GC racing, Storer was left isolated and four minutes down on the Dutchman with three climbs to come.
The Australian was forced to attack and dropped the remainder of the favourites 35km from the finish, before soloing his way to third with another great performance, albeit not strong enough to keep green.
Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) was second on the day after also attacking in the action-packed middle of the stage, crossing the line 1:18 down on Arensman, with Storer following him in just five seconds later.
Arensman will enter stage 5 with an 11-second lead on Storer, with the two likely to fight out the battle for green between them.
Gee will start Friday in third overall, 2:15 off the lead.
Thymen Arensman took the Tour of the Alps leader's jersey (Image credit: Getty Images)
"Unbelievable. It started to get very cold right from the start, but I know that in these types of weather conditions, I can handle myself well," said Arensman, before explaining his decision to attack from so far out.
"At the end of the descent, everyone was suffering from the cold, and Lidl-Trek raised the pace, reducing the group to just a few riders. At that point, I decided to give it my all and attacked.
"There was a brief moment when I thought that I was actually too far from the finish line to attack alone, but I felt good, and I knew that everyone was definitely tired because of the cold."
Having managed to hold a lead through to the finish, Arensman will return to a parcours in Lienz on Friday to try and secure overall victory. It's a stage route he knows, having raced it and got in a move with Storer at the Tour of the Alps in 2022.
"I remember the stage from a few years ago. Now I'm defending the leader's jersey," he said. "That will be difficult, but after today, everyone will feel their legs."
How it unfolded
Billed as the queen stage of the Tour of the Alps, day four kicked off from Sillian in Austria, with 162.5km and 3200 metre of elevation gain on the menu.
Storer knew he would have a tough day defending the race leader's jersey ahead, but things started relatively calmly.
A breakaway of six formed 10km into the racing, made up of Lennart Jasch (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Felix Engelhardt (Jayco AlUla), Kim Heiduk (Ineos Grenadiers), Geoffrey Bouchard (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Andrea Pietrobon (Polti VisitMalta) and Emanuel Zangerle (Vorarlberg). They built out a four-minute lead as the race dipped back into Italy and climbed to Lago di Misurina, before heading north back to the Austrian border.
That gap quickly fell to below a minute as the action in the peloton kicked off up the Passo di Sant'Antonio and Passo Monte Croce di Comelico, led mainly by Lidl-Trek for Giulio Ciccone.
Several of the GC favourites came to the fore in a series of attacks and counter moves, with nine eventually getting up the road: Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious), Arensman, Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Max Poole (Picnic-PostNL), Gee, Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon AG2R), Eddie Dunbar, Engelhardt (Jayco AlUla) and Storer.
The Tour of the Alps GC battle exploded in the rain (Image credit: Getty Images)
Arensman then took off alone in the cold and rain, extending an initial 30-second lead out to 2:50 on the peloton after getting back to Austria with 50km to go. He went into the virtual lead, having started the day 1:18 on Storer, but there was a lot of road left to cover.
Gee and Koen Bouwman (Jayco AlUla) formed a two-man chase of the Ineos rider, but struggled to make much of an impression on his lead before the final 50km into Obertilliach. They were within a minute of him for much of the day, but the Canadian then went off alone to try and make the catch. It was a huge challenge.
With the weather conditions playing a vital role in the first half of the stage, Storer was left isolated in the peloton, as Red Bull, Jayco and Decathlon took up the mantle of chasing Arensman.
The gaps mainly went in the wrong direction, however, out to four minutes ahead of the Anras Oberried climb. This is where Storer took off on his own in a bid to defend his jersey and keep hold of the overall lead in the race, launching away from the GC group 35km from the line.
It was another hard day at the Tour of the Alps (Image credit: Getty Images)
Storer was four minutes down at the moment he went but was clearly the strongest in the group, attacking on his own and sweeping up Poole and then Bouwman to reduce his disadvantage to Arensman to just 1:42 with 12km remaining in the day.
The Dutchman, meanwhile, was visibly struggling after such a long effort on his own, with Gee only 28 seconds down the road ahead of him.
Behind, the group chasing Storer had stalled as many of the contenders were left without teammates. Gall eventually tried to get away on his own with 11km to go, but was then joined by Ciccone and Caruso.
With the racing spread all over the road up the final Kartitscher Sattel climb, Gee started to fade, 42 seconds back on Arensman, but Storer continued to improve and threatened to deny the Ineos man, closing his lead to 1:26 with nine kilometres left to ride.
However, Storer started to show signs of a struggle, unable to reduce the deficit any further in the final run for the line. With the gradient flattening out, Arensman steadied the ship and knew he was on his way to a memorable victory.
The Dutchman was able to celebrate at the line, quickly getting into warm clothing and then being overheard saying, "I don't want to get sick for the Giro" at the finish.
Storer finished third behind Gee after a strong ride, but ultimately lost the lead of the race. He slumped to the ground in pain and disappointment.
With just 11 seconds separating them heading into the final day, starting and finishing in Lienz, stage 5 is set to bring the finale to an exciting five days of racing in South Tyrol, with the remainder of the GC favourites over two minutes down and likely out of the fight.
Derek Gee went deep on stage 4 of the Tour of the Alps (Image credit: Getty Images)
James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
