photo credits @ Trirreno-Adriatico
Primoz Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) made it back-to-back wins in this year’s Tirreno-Adriatico, after the Slovenian rider triumphed atop the climb to Sassotetto in today’s stage 5, out-sprinting Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) and Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) to claim the day’s honors.
Race Highlights
Heavy winds forced race officials to curtail today’s summit finish by 2.5 kilometers, while scattered rain impacted most of 168 kilometer route from Sarnano to Sassotetto.
Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo) and Davide Ballerini (Soudal Quick-Step) marked the day’s first breakaway effort, with Zdenek Stybar (Jayco-AIUla), Erik Fetter (Eolo-Kometa), Anthony Perez (Cofidis), Simon Guglielmi (Arkea-Samsic) and Florian Stork (DSM) quickly joining the duo.
Simmons would later drop back into the peloton, while the remaining escapees went on to establish a modest advantage of two and a half minutes.
With 67 kilometers to go, Guglielmi was the next rider to fall back into the peloton, with Stybar taking the maximum intermediate sprints points in the breakaway.
As the kilometers ticked by, the breakaway began to lose momentum. As they took on the San Ginesio, the first of three categorized climbs, their advantage fell drastically, with Fetter and Stybar later getting dropped from the group.
With 40 kilometers remaining, Ineos Grenadiers suddenly appeared on the front of the main field, with a high pace set by Michal Kwiatkowski and Filippo Ganna causing the peloton to shatter.
With 24 kilometers to go, it was all over for the breakaway, as Ineos Grenadiers devoured the remnants of the lead group as the riders began the final climb to Gualdo.
As the peloton descended towards the base of the Sassotetto climb, the wind was so severe that riders were unclipping one foot after getting caught in the gusts, while Movistar continued to drive the pace.
Once the Sassotetto began, all hell would broke loose as UAE Team Emirates moved to the front, subsequently shredding the field with a very high tempo.
Shortly thereafter, Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) decided to launch an aggressive attack as he looked to set up Mikel Landa, quickly opening up a sizable gap of almost half a minute for himself as he entered the snow-line on the climb.
With just over a kilometer to go, Enric Mas was the next rider to launch a violent attack, which quickly brought Caruso back into the fold, while Ciccone was fast to respond to the Spanish rider’s acceleration.
Ciccone was the first rider to surge for the line, with Roglič and Geoghegan Hart keen to mark his move.
But, once Roglič passed Ciccone, there was no stopping the Jumbo-Visma rider, who went on to score his second successive stage victory and snatch the overall race lead.
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