The 4th stage of the Tour of the Alps 2023 was a spoil for the breakaway. Gregor Mühlberger (Movistar) secured the first Austrian stage win at this year's event. After 152.9 kilometres between Rovereto and Predazzo, the 29-year-old was the fastest in the sprint of a three-man lead group.
Tour of the Alps 2023: Mühlberger praises competitors
Second place went to Torstein Traeen (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team) ahead of Giulio Pellizzari (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizane). Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe) rounded off the Austrians' excellent performance in fourth place.
"I am very happy. I tried to stay with the leaders on the last climb. Chapeau to the performance of the young Bardiani rider. He is a great talent. A big thank you also goes to my team," said Mühlberger at the finish.
Geoghegan Hart defends overall lead
There were no changes to the top 10 in the overall standings, with leader Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) retains the leader's jersey. Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe), who had won the mountain finish in Brentonico San Valentino the day before, is still the best-placed German rider in sixth place, 45 seconds behind the leader. Felix Gall (AG2R-Citroën Team) from Austria is in tenth place, 1:20 minutes behind.
How the 4th stage went
14 riders broke away from the peloton and formed a leading group. Among them were the two Austrians Mühlberger and Konrad. The breakaway's maximum lead over the peloton was around five minutes. The Ineos Grenadiers team controlled the peloton for Tao Geoghegan Hart. In the meantime, the Brits were supported by Euskaltel-Euskadi.
In the last climb of the day to the Passo Pramadiccio, the attacks came from the leading group. Mühlberger, Traeen and Pellizzari distanced their rivals. The 19-year-old Pellizzari secured the last mountain classification of the day 15 kilometres before the finish with a small lead over his two companions. Mühlberger and Traeen were able to catch up again on the descent. In this constellation, the three breakaway riders rode out the day's victory. Mühlberger took the sprint in Predazzo early on and neither of his two rivals were able to overtake him.
Tour of the Alps 2023: Results stage 4
- Gregor Mühlberger (Movistar) 4:16:53
- Torstein Traeen (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team) +0:00
- Giulio Pellizzari (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizane) +0:00
- Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:40
- Stefan de Bod (EF Education EasyPost) +0:40
- Oscar Rodriguez (Movistar) +0:40
- Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech) +0:40
- Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R-Citroën Team) +0:40
- Mark Donovan (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) +0:40
- Antonio Pedrero (Movistar) +0:40
The overall standings
- Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) 15:41:54
- Hugh Carthy (EF Education EasyPost) +0:22
- Jack Haig (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:28
- Jefferson Cepeda (EF Education EasyPost) +0:36
- Lorenzo Fortunato (Eolo - Kometa) +0:38
- Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:45
- Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:49
- Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers) +0:56
- Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:58
- Felix Gall (AG2R-Citroën Team) +1:20
On Friday, the Tour of the Alps ends with the 5th stage, which leads over 144.5 kilometres from Cavalese to Bruneck.
