photo credits @ Tirreno-Adriatico
Uno-X Mobility’s Fredrik Dversnes pulled off a hard-fought victory in stage 5 of the Tirreno Adriatico today, hanging on by a thread against an elite group of pursuers to seize the day’s honors.
Dversnes proved the strongest of the day’s early break, on what turned out to be another 200km-plus stage from Ascoli Picena to Pergola, surviving multiple attacks and attempts to pull him back on the final climb of the Monterolo by riders such as Juan Ayuso and Tom Pidcock.
“I got the word from my sports directeur to go all-in,” Dversnes explained afterward.
Meanwhile, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) led in the bunch sprint seven seconds behind, with Roger Adrià (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) third, with Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) retaining his leader’s jersey, despite having to stop and wait for a replacement bike with only 200m to go following a mechanical failure.
Earlier, Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) took off immediately after the start, followed by Dredrik Dversnes (Uno-X), King of the Mountains Manuele Tarozzi (Bardiani), Paul Ourselin (Cofidis), Francisco Muñoz (Polti VisitMalta), Gal Glivar and fellow countryman Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
Now down to five, the breakaway began the final climb with a one-minute lead. However, the pace was fast, especially when Nairo Quintana attacked. The Colombian rode away, but UAE continued to control the race, with Isaac Del Toro setting the pace.
Dversnes was the last man left in the lead. Behind him, everyone remained in the saddle until a few hundred meters from the summit, when Ayuso broke away. Pidcock, Ganna, and Hindley were right with him, but Van der Poel was also there. There was still a 15-second gap.
From there, Ayuso dove into the 7.5km descent at high speed, decreasing Dversnes’ advantage dramatically.
However, the chase failed to coalesce allowing the Norwegian rider’s lead to stretch back out.
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