Chris Froome (Sky) grabbed the stage win on the snow-capped summit of Prati di Tivo with a vicious burst of acceleration, to sweep past Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff), Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and Mauro Santambrogio (Fantini Vini-Selle Italia) in the final kilometre.
22-year old Polish prodigy Michael Kwiatkowski (OPQS) fought his way into fourth place on the stage, giving him the race lead by a mere four seconds to Froome.
With another mountain stage tomorrow, Kwiatkowski will have his work cut out to defend the race lead from a rampaging Froome, whose Sky teammates Sergio Henao, Rigoberto Uran, and Pete Kennaugh took control of stage 4 with 10km to go.
Neverthless, this stage belonged to Froome.
The win confirmed that he is the biggest threat to Contador to take the Tirreno-Adriatico, a victory which would provide clear vindication of Sky’s decision to focus on Froome for the Tour de France.
The level of support Froome is able to command from his team gives him an enormous advantage over his GC rivals, most of whom were isolated without teammates, while Froome had three lieutenants until the final stages.
BMC had earlier spent their fuel during a long stint on the front for Cadel Evans, chasing down a four-man breakaway consisting of Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana), Tomasz Marzynski (Vacansoleil), Anthony Roux (FDJ) and Francesco Failli (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia).
However, this early effort proved costly for Evans, as Froome’s Sky squad took control with the breakaway nearly in sight, shredding the lead group and dumping the now-isolated Evans out the back with 7km to go.
Evans was not the only casualty: Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Samuel Sanchez (Euskatel) also suffered, Daniel Martin (Garmin) lost time, and Andy Schleck’s nightmare return from injury continued, as he was shelled out very early on the climb, eventually losing a massive 12 minutes.
The action was thick and fresh at the sharp end of the bunch. An elite group including Froome, Henao, Uran, Contador, Nibali, Kwiatkowski, Chris Horner (Radioshack), Wouter Poels (Vacansoleil), and Roman Kreuziger (Saxo-Tinkoff) had formed behind the Sky onslaught.
Contador launched a speculative attack 6.2km from the finish, but Henao merely increased the tempo and dragged him back almost immediately.
Meanwhile, Rodriguez, Evans and Rinaldo Nocentini clawed back onto the lead group, but just as Evans nearly rejoined the leaders, the acceleration came again from Sky and he was dropped, eventually finishing 1:13 behind Froome, enough to end his overall hopes for this race.
Contador kicked again 2.7km from the finish, forcing a more aggressive response from Sky through Uran. Nevertheless, Contador was able to open up a gap of around 6 seconds, before Nibali and Santambrogio bridged across to the Spaniard.
Still Froome did not panic, using Uran to draw the 3 leaders within striking distance with a kilometre remaining. Nibali attacked as they passed under the red kite, sparking an emphatic response from Froome who gave Contador, Nibali and Santambrogio no chance to react, hitting them at full speed and immediately opening a decisive gap.
With another day in the mountains in stage five, and an individual time trial to follow, the race is still open, but looking increasingly like a battle between Contador and Froome for overall honours.
Kwiatkowski has ridden wonderfully this far, but it’s difficult to see the young man being able to defend such a slender lead over two days, with the big boys seemingly intent on gaining early-season bragging rights.
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