With a tour de force, Olav Kooij (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) secured victory in the sprint of stage 4 of Tirreno-Adriatico 2025. The Dutchman beat his two compatriots Rick Pluimers (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin - Deceuninck) finished second and third. The overall leader's blue jersey was defended by the Italian Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers). The stage had long been characterised by a five-man breakaway group, which included the German Jonas Rutsch (Intermarché - Wanty). However, the 27-year-old fell back into the peloton in the final after a crash, while two of his fellow riders, along with Ben Healy (EF Education - EasyPost) were only caught by the extremely thinned-out peloton 400 metres before the finish. The day's winner Kooij had dropped back from the peloton in the meantime after a wind edge situation occurred in the difficult mountainous middle section of the stage.

"I actually thought I had made it over the mountain. But on the plateau, the wind squalls caught us on the wrong foot. In between, I sometimes thought that we would get back on top, sometimes I no longer believed it. The team did a fantastic job. When I was back in contention, I knew that I could ride for the win," said a very exhausted Kooij, describing his impressions in the official winner's interview.

Results of the 4th stage of Tirreno-Adriatico 2025

How the 4th stage of Tirreno-Adriatico 2025 went

In the early stages of the stage, no breakaway group was able to break away decisively. It was only after the first mountain classification after the Forca della Civita that a group of five formed and built up a substantial lead: Jonas Rutsch (Intermarché - Wanty), Jorge Arcas (Movistar Team), Gijs Leemreize (Team Picnic PostNL), Mirco Maestri (Team Polti VisitMalta) and William Levy Blume (Uno-X Mobility). The quintet gained a maximum lead of around 4:30 minutes over the peloton.

There, INEOS Grenadiers went into the wind 80 kilometres before the finish. This caused a lot of movement in the race, with the peloton splintering into several groups. After the descent from Valico La Crocetta, the second climb of the day, there was another turnaround. A six-man group with Juan Ayuso, Felix Großschartner, Isaac del Toro (all three UAE Team Emirates - XRG), Laurens De Plus, Filippo Ganna (both INEOS Grenadiers) and Quentin Pacher (Groupama - FDJ) broke away from the first echelon. However, this high-calibre group did not get away decisively and was quickly caught again.

As a result, things quietened down a little in the first peloton, which gave the original breakaway group around Rutsch a little more of a lead and they rode in front by around 30 seconds. With 25 kilometres to go, Rutsch crashed in a right-hand bend and dropped back into the peloton. Behind him, a second group led by Simon Yates (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) and Derek Gee (Israel - Premier Tech) fought for a long time to catch up. Mikel Landa acted as a lifeline for this group, dropping back from the first group with a puncture and then bringing in almost the entire Soudal-Quick-Step team to lead the second peloton back to the first. Meanwhile, the four remaining breakaway riders held on to the lead with a lead of around 20 seconds.

Only five kilometres before the finish did the escape end for part of the group after Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin - Deceuninck) attacked out of the peloton and Ben Healy (EF Education - EasyPost) buttered up the bunch. While Blume Levy and Maestri still had the strength to jump on Healy's rear wheel, Leemreize and Arcas dropped back into the peloton. There, however, the helpers ran out, which gave the Healy group another boost. The trio was only caught at the 400 metre mark. As the strongest remaining sprinter on paper, Kooij lived up to his role as favourite and prevailed against Rick Pluimers (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) and van der Poel to take victory on stage 4 of Tirreno-Adriatico 2025.