Warren Barguil took a nice stage victory on Friday after the Arkéa-Samsic rider cut the front of the reduced outburst and landed stage five in Tirreno-Adriatico.
Barguil completed the 155-kilometer stage from Sefro to Fermo in 3 hours 39 minutes. 53 seconds, 10 seconds ahead of Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Fenix) in second place, while Simone Velasco (Astana Qazaqstan) finished third in 14 seconds.
“This is amazing. I planned to be in the front in the final,” said Barguil. “It was a good stage for me and I felt it would be a good day for the outburst. I got a lot of help from my teammate, friend and roommate Clément Russo. I gave up everything on the ‘wall’. I’m devastated, but I’ve done it. “
In what was a hectic final, overall leader Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Remco Evenepoel (Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl) took a trip while hunting for the Barguil outbreak . Although the trio missed the opportunity to challenge the stage, Pogacar held on to his driver’s jersey.
Tirreno-Adriatico continues on Saturday with the 215 km long sixth stage from Apecchio to Carpegna and ends on Sunday.
Phase four: Pogacar takes control and leads races in Tirreno-Adriatico
Thursday, March 10 – Marble to Bellante Waterfall, 202 km
Tadej Pogacar made it to a UAE Team Emirates double on Thursday as the Slovenian followed up after Brandon McNulty’s stage victory in Paris-Nice with one of his own on the fourth stage in Tirreno-Adriatico.
Pogacar made his decisive move after Victor Lafay (Cofidis) was moved from the front of the leading group on the last climb of the day before reacting in kind and attacking about 500 meters from the end of the 202-kilometer stage from Cascata delle Marble to Bellante.
Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), second place to Pogacar at last year’s Tour de France, reacted with the Dane chasing him down to take second place on the stage, where Lafay finished third.
The stage victory caused Pogacar to take the overall lead after beating Remco Evenepoel (Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl), which he now leads by 9 sec., While Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) dropped two places to third in 21 sec.
“After the great work from the whole team, today I could only try to win and give my best,” said Pogacar. “There are still three important stages where we have to work hard, both tomorrow and especially in it, after which it will be the queen stage. We need to stay focused and do our best. “
There were encouraging signs for Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers), within the 2020 Giro d’Italia, who finished in sixth place on the day, moving up to fifth place in the overall standings of 43 sec.
Step three: Ewan shows form in the countdown to Milan-Sanremo
Wednesday, March 9 – Murlo to Terni, 170 km
Caleb Ewan landed his third win of the season in Tirreno-Adriatico on Wednesday when the Lotto-Soudal sprinter came from behind to win stage three ahead of Arnaud Démare and Olav Kooij.
Ewan, who will hope to challenge the honor in Milan-Sanremo later this month, won the 170-kilometer stage from Murlo to Terni in 4 hours 7 min. 24 sec. after overtaking Démare (Groupama-FDJ) and Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) on a slightly uphill finish.
Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) kept his leader jersey, the Italian still leads Remco Evenepoel (Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl) with 11 sec in the general classification, while defending champion Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) is still third but reduced his deficit by 3 SEC. to 14 sec, after gaining some valuable seconds at an intermediate sprint.
Stage two: Merlier weaves for the first win of the season
Tuesday, March 8 – Camaiore to Sovicille, 219 km
Tim Merlier took his first win of the season on Tuesday after the Alpecin-Fenix sprinter weaved his way to the finish line at the end of the 219-kilometer second stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico in Sovicille.
Merlier from Belgium finished ahead of young Dutchman Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma), while another young sprinter, Kaden Groves (BikeExchange-Jayco) from Australia finished third.
Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) finished safely to hold on to the driver’s jersey, Italian leads Remco Evenepoel (Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl) by 11 seconds, while defending champion Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) is third in 17 seconds.
Stage one: Ganna returns to take the lead early
Monday 7 March – Lido di Camaiore, 13.9 km – time trial
Filippo Ganna won the opening stage in Tirreno-Adriatico after the Italian drove around the 13.9-kilometer time trial track at the Lido di Camaiore in Viareggio to grab the driver’s jersey during the seven-day race.
It was the world champion’s third victory of the season, but the first at WorldTour level, where the Ineos Grenadiers rider indicated in his post-race interview that he is already thinking of this month’s Milan-Sanremo, the season’s first monument. , which takes place on 19 March.
Ganna completed the flat course in 15 min. 17 sec., 11 sec. faster than Remco Evenepoel (Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl), while defending champion Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), fresh after winning the Strade Bianche this weekend, finished third in 18 sec.
“Today was a special race,” Ganna said. “I have put a lot of pressure on the team to come here because I love this race, and today I showed how much I want to win this race. It is an important result for me and the team and now we are thinking about tomorrow.
“When we started it was very headwind and I think, ‘oh, today is hard’, but then after the turn, you see that the speed improves, remained at 55 km / h. It is a special race and a special result. At the moment it’s a good time gap, but tomorrow is a tough day with a sprint and we have to see how it relates to the jersey.
“I will definitely support the team like Richie [Porte] and Richard [Carapaz]. Then we have to see if my legs are ready to come in more stages. We must definitely save a little on energy, because in less than two weeks we will have a special race in Italy [Milan-Sanremo]and I want to arrive with good legs. ”
Alex Dowsett (Israel-Premier Tech) was the highest-ranked Briton in fifth place with 25 seconds after spending much of the afternoon in the hotseat after clocking the fastest time of the day before being thrown out by Kasper Asgreen (Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl), which eventually finished in fourth place in 18 sec.
Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers), the Giro d’Italia champion in 2020, produced a strong ride and finished as No. 14 fastest in 42 seconds, with his teammate Richard Carapaz, himself a former Giro winner, 5 seconds behind the Londoner .