photo credits @ Tirreno-Adriatico
Primoz Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) sealed the overall victory in this year’s Tirreno-Adriatico, while Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) claimed the final stage, after the Belgian rider out-sprinted Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla) and Alberto Dainese (Team DSM) in San Benedetto del Tronto.
It was touch and go for the sprinters as a persistent eight-man breakaway held off the peloton until the final 3 kilometers, where a series of turns and tightening roads squeezed out Intermarché-Circus-Wanty and Soudal-Quickstep’s Fabio Jakobsen, while last year’s stage winner Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) came up too late to finished fourth.
Meanwhile, João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) finished second overall at 18 seconds, with Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) third at 23 seconds.
“We managed to be in a really good position thanks to all the motivation we had from the previous sprint stage – we knew we were able to do it again. The team and Mathieu again did an amazing job,” Philipsen said.
Race Highlights
Nans Peters (AG2R-Citroën), Mikkel Honore (EF Education-EasyPost), Bruno Armirail (Groupama-FDJ), Valentin Ferron (TotalEnergies), Lorenzo Fortunato (Eolo-Kometa), Samuele Zoccarato (Green Project-Bardiani), Arthur Kluckers (Tudor) were the first riders to animate today’s 154-kilometer circuit around the hills and seafront of San Benedetto del Tronto.
Henri Vandenabeele (Team DSM) later bridged his way to the breakaway group along the only classified climb of the day, the Cossignano, while Cristian Rodriguez (Arkea-Samsic), Jan Stöckli (Corretec) and Andreas Leknessund (DSM) also tried to make their way across, but to no avail.
As the breakaway entered the final 20 kilometers, their advantage of 3:20 had fallen to a mere 20-seconds. This spelled the end for the group, as Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) later came to the fore, reining in the escapes with under 4 kilometers to go.
The catch inspired Cofidis to take the lead before a tricky chicane and a narrowing of the route. Then it was Intermarché-Circus-Wanty battling for the lead, but Ganna again came to the front to stretch out the peloton ahead of a tight squeeze.
Van der Poel dived past the Italian rider during the final turn, setting up his teammate Philipsen perfectly.
When Philipsen jumped, he had the speed and power to hold off Groenewegen and so take his second win of this year’s Tirreno-Adriatico.
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