After 207 kilometres between Arrone and Giulianova, Jonathan Milan took the first Italian stage win in this year's edition of the race between the seas on stage 4 of Tirreno-Adriatico 2024. The Lidl-Trek sprinter relegated Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) to second and third place in a demanding sprint. The best German was Marius Mayrhofer (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) in sixth place.
Jonas Abrahamsen narrowly misses out on breakaway coup
But things could have turned out differently. Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), the last remaining breakaway rider, held on to the lead until shortly before the finish. The Norwegian was only caught by the approaching sprinters a good 50 metres before the finish. Milan really had to bend his legs to first catch up with Abrahamsen and then keep Philipsen at bay.
"I didn't have an easy day. I had a puncture on the climb. It was hard to get back into the peloton. My team supported me very well. They were incredible today." - Jonathan Milan in the official winner interview.
But that was not enough. Before the 4th stage, Milan was only six seconds behind the previous overall leader Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates). The Italian took over the blue jersey from the Spaniard thanks to the 10-second time bonus for the stage win.
Tirreno-Adriatico 2024 - Results: The top 10 of stage 4
- Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) 4:56:44
- Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +0:00
- Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) +0:00
- Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty) +0:00
- Axel Zingle (Cofidis) +0:00
- Marius Mayrhofer (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) +0:00
- Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) +0:00
- Ivan Garcia Cortina (Movistar) +0:00
- Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal - Quick Step) +0:00
- Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:00
The current standings in the overall standings
- Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) 15:06:02
- Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +0:04
- Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels) +0:18
- Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:21
- Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) +0:26
- Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ) +0:26
- Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:28
- Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) +0:30
- Max Poole (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) +0:30
- Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:30
How the 4th stage of Tirreno-Adriatico 2024 went
A six-man breakaway group dominated the action for most of the stage: Lorenzo Quartucci (Team Corratec - Vini Fantini), Davide Bais, Mirco Maestri (both Polti-Kometa), Alexander Kamp (Tudor Pro Cycling Team), Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) and Alex Tolio (VF Group-Bardiani CSF - Faizane). Their maximum lead was just over five minutes.
After crossing the Forca di Presta at 1536 metres, the race reshuffled itself. Bais secured the mountain jersey from Richard Carapaz (EF Education EasyPost) by scoring two points on the Valico di Castellucio climb, which he had crossed shortly before.
Defect at Juan Ayuso
The sprinter teams organised the chase of the leading group in the peloton, where there were several crashes. Among others, Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers) and Attila Valter (Visma | Lease a Bike) crashed in a bend. With 29 kilometres to go, overall leader Juan Ayuso had a puncture on his Colnago racing machine and took a while to get back to the front of the peloton.
Around 25 kilometres before the finish, the leading group dwindled: Abrahamsen, Maestri and Kamp remained at the front. The trio held on until one kilometre before the finish, before Maestri and Kamp were dropped by the peloton. Abrahamsen continued to fight back - almost successfully.
Jonathan Milan wins with a tour de force
The sprinters ran out of helpers. And so it was Thomas Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) who set off on a very long sprint. Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty) broke away from the British rider's slipstream. As on stage 2, the Eritrean rode a rather violent wave from the left to the right side of the road and then took off. Jonathan Milan fought his way past Girmay and Abrahamsen on the right-hand side of the road with Jasper Philipsen and came out just ahead of Philipsen.
