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.
Lee Rodgers
Expert
For sure I don;t underestimate Conty's TT skills, he was the first of the pure climbers to realise he had to adapt to the modern age in regards to that, and he went from average to becoming one of the very best medium to long range Grand Tout trialists. Hugely impressive. But still, I think Froome will edge it!
Colin N
Guest
They do have a ridiculous amount of climbing talent. Henao, Uran and Porte are probably top-10 GC contenders anyway and then you have Cataldo, Suitsou, Lopez, Kiryienka. Porte's had a decent team around him even with Tiernan-Locke, I believe, struggling with illness in Paris-Nice.
Tim Renowden
Expert
Kwiatkowski can also time trial: http://www.cyclingnews.com/tour-de-san-luis/stage-4/results
Justin Curran
Roar Rookie
Well whatever the answer is, the other world tour teams are going to be left in Tour de France oblivion for years to come if they keep doing what they are doing at the moment. I was super impressed that Sky were able to dominate the way they did with a second string line up. They dropped Froome off at the perfect moment and he just exploded. Even though Contador is brilliant and had a team mate beside him, he still had no answer in the final. Ominous signs for July in my humble opinion.
Tenash
Guest
Lee agree with u that Froome has improved in the ITT & is certainly heaps better than A Schleck but Contador's ITT skills r vastly underestimated because people r fascinated with his climbing ability
Tim Renowden
Expert
Interesting question - I reckon the answer will vary from team to team, but Sky has two things which weigh heavily in its favour when it comes to building a team to support GC riders: 1) a big budget, which means they can pick the riders they want, to a greater extent than other teams 2) a fairly tight focus on racing for GC in stage races. Sky is not as worried about classics and sprints, even more so now that Cav has realised that Sky is all about the GC and shot through. You could see over this weekend that Sky have much greater depth of guys that can grind a really high tempo in the mountains. It's probably through a combination of focused recruitment, and training methods that are very specific to supporting this type of riding.
Lee Rodgers
Expert
Not sure about that Tenash, Froome has made massive improvements in the ITT, and if you look at the times Froome put in when Wiggo beat him last year at the Tour, they were more then credible, they were quietly brilliant. It's funny how we used to complain about specialisation in the past, with Indurain and LA doing their 'Tour thing' - but now we have Wiggo winning all over the place, and, it seems Froome following suit, and still we complain! Nice article Tim, great to see T-A kicking into life, it's a great race...
Tenash
Guest
Alberto for the overall win ! Contador will just blow everyone away in the Time Trial i.e if not in the last mountain stage itself. Froome won't get close to Contador's time in the ITT
Justin Curran
Roar Rookie
Well the Sky Express was back in top gear last night and it seemed like 2012 all over again. It's not as though the other teams wouldn't have known what Sky's strategy was going to be. So this begs the question Tim. Are the other teams being caught napping and not developing a strategy to counter Sky, or is 12 months just not enough time to make the personnel changes necessary?
Tim Renowden
Expert
Yeah. Put it this way - if you're slightly off the pace at Paris-Nice/Tirreno-Adriatico it's no reason to panic (Evans is slightly off the pace now, but not by that much), but if you're already winning it's probably a good sign. That's how I see it.
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
Fair call. I guess most of the tour leaders aren't going to compete/ contest the classiques to come anyway. As a French, I didn't follow tirreno adriatico much, preferring Paris nice. Hope chavanel or peraud beat Porte tonight but I do think thirty seconds is too big a gap over a twenty minutes time trial.
Sean Lee
Expert
I'm slaving away at work while you get to report on Froome's great win. I'll swap places with you. Seriously though, Froome's form is building nicely. Hope he is not stabbed in the back at the Tour and actually gets to lead the team. He would be as flighty as Wiggins was clinical. Would make for an interesting Tour! Anyway, back to work...
Tim Renowden
Expert
It worked for Wiggins winning Paris-Nice (also on this weekend) last year, and Evans won Tirreno-Adriatico in 2011, so I'd say it's not a bad thing...
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
Tim, do you think it's 'good' to be in great shape that early in the season for Froome and Porte? It's rare that a Tour favourite is in such a form that early no?
Tim Renowden
Expert
Yeah, Evans didn't seem to be travelling too badly, but he didn't look as good as Froome, Contador or Nibali. I think he's in reasonable shape, but let's face it, he's 36 and it would take something genuinely special for him to win another Tour. The lack of team support is a serious concern, but half the likely TDF squad is racing in Paris-Nice with Tejay Van Garderen, so it's difficult to know whether they'll be better in the Tour. Of course, the same is true for Sky, with Richie Porte demonstrating how strong he is in Paris-Nice.
Tristan Rayner
Editor
Tim, as a non-cycling purist and big Cadel Evans fan, I'm pouring through these reports for some form guidance the man. It would appear Froome looks too good - and although anything can and will happen, his team look to be again far superior to Evans. Evans busted on this stage too it seems, not good!