Tour of the Alps 2024 - Stage 4: Carr wins the queen stage after a 125-kilometre escape, Harper crash changes the course of the race

Simon Carr (EF Education EasyPost) needed 126 kilometres as a breakaway rider for his first victory of the season at the Trofeo Calvia in January, and he took about the same amount of time for his second. The 25-year-old Briton had already broken away after around ten kilometres as part of a breakaway group on the 141-kilometre stage 4 of the Tour of the Alps between Laives and Borgo Valsugana in Italy. He gradually shook off his fellow escapees, the last one being Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe) on the Passo del Vetriolo.

On the descent of this mountain, Chris Harper (Team Jayco-AlUla) had closed the gap to 15 seconds, but then crashed heavily in a bend. He hit his head against a lamppost and had to abandon the race. A few seconds after him, his first pursuer Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) also crashed in the same place, but much more lightly. He immediately jumped back on his bike and ultimately finished third behind Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling), although the duo were subsequently left behind by the group of favourites.

They, on the other hand, had initially slowed down completely after the crashes of the riders in front, so that Carr's lead grew to three minutes again in the meantime and he was ultimately able to win as the third solo winner on the fourth day. Carr had already finished a stage of the Tour of the Alps as the winner the previous year. With an altitude difference of almost 4000 metres, it was the most difficult section of the tour.

Lopez defends lead at Tour of the Alps 2024 in battle against all comers

"Today was a special day," said Carr in the winner's interview after the seventh success of his professional career. "But it was also my first here. I didn't really feel comfortable at first, coming from the altitude training camp and also struggling with the cold conditions," he explained. However, the team encouraged him to keep going. "They said that better days will come, and that was true. But I only felt confident today after the last climb."

Behind Carr, who more or less rode his own race, the favourites kept attacking each other in the battle for the overall standings. Juan Pedro Lopez (Lidl-Trek) was left to his own devices. The previous day's winner and overall leader had to close every gap himself, and requests for help were generally turned down by the competition. Instead, there were further attacks, which the Spaniard ultimately parried again and again and thus defended his lead.

O'Connor is the new runner-up, 38 seconds behind Lopez going into the final stage. Tobias Foss (Ineos Grenadiers), who previously held this position, was dropped early in the day - as was the rest of his team. However, Foss still leads the points classification. Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) defended his sixth place in the junior classification ahead of Valentin Paret-Peintre (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), who finished one place ahead of him. The new holder of the mountain jersey is the day's winner, who won both mountain classifications.

>> Tour of the Alps 2024: route and TV broadcast

The top 10 of the 4th stage of the Tour of the Alps

1. Simon Carr (EF Education EasyPost) 4:06:27
2. Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling) +1:19
3. Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +1:19
4. Wout Poels (Bahrain-Victorious) +1:22
5. Valentin Paret-Peintre (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +1:22
6. Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) +1:22
7. Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) +1:22
8. Juan Pedro Loepz (Lidl-Trek) +1:22
9. Giulio Pellizzari (VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizane) +2:19
10. Georg Steinhauser (EF Education EasyPost) +2:19

The current overall standings

1. Juan Pedro Loepz (Lidl-Trek) 15:30:23
2. Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +0:38
3. Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:48
4. Wout Poels (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:48
5. Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) +0:48
6. Valentin Paret-Peintre (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +0:48
7. Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling) +1:40
8. Giulio Pellizzari (VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizane) +1:54
9. Ivan Ramiro Sosa (Movistar) +2:52
10. Davide Piganzoli (Polti-Kometa) +2:58

>> The race report on stage 1 of the Tour of the Alps

>> The race report on stage 2 of the Tour of the Alps

>> The race report on stage 3 of the Tour of the Alps

How the 4th stage of the Tour of the Alps 2024 went

It was the pros, who had so far fallen short of expectations, who characterised the start of the queen stage. Shortly after the start of the first difficult but uncategorised climb of the day, Carr and his team-mate Hugh Carthy, last year's overall runner-up, were able to break away from the field after several unsuccessful attempts.

The duo were joined a few kilometres later by Davide Piganzoli (Polti-Kometa) and Higuita. The Bora-Hansgrohe captain, who only slipped into the squad at short notice, was also hardly seen in the first stages.

After 35 kilometres, the quartet had a lead of around two minutes on the peloton, from which a seven-man chasing group had also broken away and quickly made the jump to the front. Among them were the mountain jersey holder Mattia Bais (Polti-Kometa), the Austrian national champion Gregor Mühlberger (Movistar), Oscar Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Lucas Hamilton (Team Jayco-AlUla).

Carr and Higuita leave fellow escapees standing

Apart from Bahrain-Victorious, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale and Lidl-Trek, all the big teams were represented in the group. Accordingly, the team of overall leader Lopez set the pace at the back and did not allow the group to go further than two minutes away for a long time. In the long descent of the second big uncategorised climb towards the halfway point of the race, however, the gap became three minutes.

In the ten-kilometre climb to the Passo del Compet (1st category), which was more than eight per cent steep on average, Higuita increased the pace and thinned out the leading group. The Colombian had to do something, as the breakaway's lead had shrunk to half after Decathlon had taken command at the back. Only Carr and Piganzoli were able to follow him.

A little later, Piganzoli also had to give in. At the mountain classification, the remaining duo had a 30-second lead over the chasers and also extended their cushion over the peloton. After the descent, it was straight back up to the Passo del Vetriolo (1st category). Carr proved to be the strongest rider at the foot of the mountain. Higuita had to fight and eventually had to let go, but initially kept his gap small.

Harper and O'Connor crash in the downhill race

In the peloton - or rather the remaining group of favourites - Harper attacked five kilometres before the summit, but Decathlon parried the attack. Lopez was already isolated at this point, Ineos Grenadiers had completely lost the connection. Then O'Connor went on the offensive. His second attack was successful. Only Lopez and the Bahrain Victorious duo of Tiberi and Wout Poels were able to stay behind, Harper and Ivan Sosa (Movistar) only came back later. Poels' counter-attack initially went unanswered, but was corrected by the summit.

Before the descent, the group had caught up with Higuita, with Sosa coming up from behind. Carr, on the other hand, went into the descent with a one-minute lead and ten more mountain points, which also put him in the corresponding jersey. There were still 35 kilometres to go.

On the downhill, many things came together again, Harper even shot past the chasers from behind and pulled out a cushion, almost catching Carr at the end of the descent. In a combination of bends, however, the Australian lost his advantage after his rear wheel spun on a kerb of the cycle path. He slid several metres on the tarmac and finally hit his head against a lamp post. O'Connor, who was also riding in front of the chasing group, also crashed in the bend, but was able to jump back on his bike quickly. The race ended for Harper, who was conscious.

Standing attempts lead the suspended to second and third place

The group behind then only rode with the brakes on. Carr's lead quickly grew to two minutes. This didn't change until the final climb, which again remained uncategorised. The chasing group, on the other hand, got bigger again, but the pace remained slow.

However, Valentin Paret-Peintre broke away again on the climb. No-one in the group behind wanted to take responsibility, so they almost tried to stand up. Even Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), who had long been left behind, was able to catch up again. Paret-Peintre built up a lead of up to 40 seconds. Once again, Lopez was left alone with the chase.

However, the gap was closed again by the time they reached the summit thanks to the sustained attacks by Poels and Tiberi on Lopez. Only Bardet was able to stay in the chasing group. On the descent, O'Connor and Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling) closed the gap again. Meanwhile, Carr rode confidently towards his victory.

The Australian duo Storer/O'Connor, who only returned three kilometres before the finish, even had the strength to ride out of the group in the last 1000 metres and secure the bonus seconds for second and third place. In tenth place, Georg Steinhauser (EF Education EasyPost) was the first German to finish in the top 10 during the race.