Season 4 Tirreno-Adriatico

The Season 4 Tirreno-Adriatico is a stage race in the Season 4 VeloTour.

## Pre-Race

Many riders were tipped as general classification contenders due to the nature of the course. The top favorites included Yevgeny Belochkov and Luis Sancho of Alpha Tauri, Giovanni Canale of Doimo, and Ibai Laida and Egon Kallas of Kyoto.

The Stage 1 team time trial and the hilly Stages 4 and 5 were thought to be most decisive for the general classification.

## Route and Stages

The route was balanced between hills, sprints, and time trials. There were no major mountain climbs on the course.

## Race Overview

Kyoto won the team time trial on Stage 1 by 14 seconds ahead of Hackett and Doimo, with Kasim Bennabi becoming the first leader of the general classification.

Yevgeny Belochkov attacked late in Stage 2 and was marked by Ibai Laida, a teammate of Bennabi. Laida attacked 1.5 kilometers from the finish and held off the peloton by 4 seconds to win the stage and the race lead.

Stage 3 was the first sprint stage of Season 4, and much of the attention was on the performance of the leadout trains for various teams. Alpha Tauri's Adrian Bernard hit the front of the peloton 5 kilometers from the finish and towed his sprinter Heinrich Kromer to the final kilometer, who easily won the sprint ahead of Miroslav Kostra.

A hilly finale on Stage 4 promised attacks, with several riders trying to escape on the final two climbs. Kyoto maintained control in the final kilometers and delivered Ibai Laida to a second stage win, extending his lead in the general classification. The other contenders all finished in the front group.

Stage 5 was the queen stage and saw early fireworks when teammates Luis Sancho and Levi Kennedy attacked 53 kilometers from the finish. Sancho would drop Kennedy and continue alone for 20 kilometers, but was chased down by the Euskaltel-Euskadi, Kyoto, and Hackett teams. A small peloton approached the penultimate climb with Rodolfo Lucci being the next to attack. Carlos Nelo crossed the gap on the descent, and dropped Lucci and the uphill finish to win the stage 26 seconds in front of the peloton. A select group of Laida, Mario Mazziotta, Manuel Navarro, and Ilyana Pavlova finished together and would occupy the top places in the general classification.

The flat Stage 6 had an unusual finale in which no teams chose to control the race and lead out for their sprinter. Doimo finally sent Demetris Tzionis and Robel Negasi to the front 2 kilometers from the finish. Negasi won the sprint to secure Doimo's first victory of Season 4.

Emil Meijer won the short, flat individual time trial on Stage 7. Hippolyte Toutain finished 2nd on the stage to move up to 2nd place in the general classification, and Pavlova ascended to 4th in the standings ahead of Navarro. Ibai Laida won the general classification by 14 seconds ahead of his Kyoto teammate Toutain, and also won the points classification and the mountains classification. Alpha Tauri won the team classification after a strong team performance on Stage 5.

## Final Results

### Points Classification

 2
 3

### Mountains Classification

 2
 3

### Team Classification

 2
 3

## Aftermath

Tirreno-Adriatico marked Kyoto as the heavy favorites to win Season 4 after the team scored over 1900 points in the race. Ibai Laida scored 1100 points through his dominant performance, becoming the runaway favorite to win MVP. Jupiler were the only team to score 0 points in the race.

Euskaltel-Euskadi manager Charlie was extremely disappointed with his team's performance, believing that Jean-Marie Cailloux and Rico Rüdiger should have performed better in the general classification.

## See Also

* Season 4
* VeloTour Wiki