Refresh
UAE’s pacing is over and teams are now getting organised in what’s looking like a lead-out into this climb that opens the finale.
Bahrain Victorious come to the fore as the peloton make their approach.
29km to go
The road kicks uphill and the climbing begins. 3.5km up to Capodarco, where we’ll have a somewhat incongruous intermediate ‘sprint’.
30km to go
The 12 leaders still have 3:12 in hand but the race favourites will have fresh legs and if things kick off early that could come down quickly.
Mikkel Bjerg is really starting to motor along now for UAE at the head of the bunch.
The pace has picked up in the peloton on the approach to this series of climbs in the final 30km. As a result, the gap is down to 3:15.
Here’s a shot of our breakaway
Plenty of short sharp hills coming up but here’s a reminder of how the final one looks
40km to go
After that short descent, the road flattens out now as we head into the final 40km. We’ve got a 10km run-in to our finale, with things set to really heat up with 30km to go.
UAE lead the bunch over the top of the climb four minutes down.
48km to go
The breakaway regroups for the descent. They’ve taken their lead out to almost four minutes on that climb.
Barguil shows an interest but Gavazzi comes through to take the maximum 5 KOM points.
The leaders come towards the top of the climb and Restrepo accelerates in search of the mountains classification points.
52km to go
The leading 12 riders hit the steep climb to Monte Urano with a lead of 3:45.
Chris Froome has come out with some interesting comments on the rise of data in modern cycling. He says it has pushed general performance levels to new heights but also made the sport more dangerous. You can read his full thoughts here.
Here’s Pogacar in the UAE line
We’re on a short incline here and we’ll soon dip down before a sharper kick up to the intermediate sprint in Monte Urano. After that, we have a 20km stretch to our finale, where the climbs don’t let up.
60km to go
The gap continues to stretch out. It’s up to 3:30 now.
69km to go
UAE continue to control the peloton but they’ve allowed the break a little more ground as the gap rises to three minutes.
It’s another double race day and we’ve also got live coverage of Paris-Nice happening right now. It’s a lumpy stage that looks set for a reduced group finish, but you can join Barry Ryan’s live coverage to find out.
Benjamin Thomas is the best-placed rider in this break in terms of the general classification. He started the day 12th overall, 1:08 down on Pogacar, so he’s the virtual leader of the race as things stand.
The gap stabilises at around 1:50.
83km to go
It’s calm, but not really. What we’ve got is a pattern, at last. However, we’ve only got 80-odd kilometres to go and there are some well-placed riders in this break, so the peloton can’t afford much of a rest.
Pogacar’s UAE teammates come to the fore and set about working to keep these 12 escapees under control.
The 12 leaders are:
Warren Barguil, Clement Russo (Arkea-Samsic)
Vincenzo Albanese, Francesco Gavazzi (Eolo-Kometa)
Davide Ballerini (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl)
Nelson Oliveira (Movistar)
Gianluca Brambilla (Trek-Segafredo)
Simone Velasco (Astana Qazaqstan)
Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis)
Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Fenix)
Valentin Ferron (Total Energies)
Jhonatan Restrepo (Drone Hopper-Androni Giocattoli)
89km to go
And breathe…
That’s it. After 65km of breathless racing, the stage finally settles down. The breakaway groups come together to form a 12-man escape, and the peloton takes a nature break as the gap rises towards two minutes.
Up the road, that group of nine has now formed and they’re 15 seconds behind the leading trio, so we’ll soon have a group of 12 ahead of a whole peloton, and a return to normality.
Indeed, things have eased markedly in the main group of favourites, and everyone’s getting back in to form one big peloton.
The dropped group of riders from the peloton are coming back, so we could be heading for a regrouping, a bit of organisation, and possibly some calm.
We’ve got a group of seven riders chasing the leading trio. And now two more are counter-attacking, so it could soon be nine.
Ferron, Oliveira, and Russo have opened a lead of 40 seconds, but now counter attacks come from the main peloton.
Here’s Alaphilippe marking a move a little earlier
Race leader Pogacar is present and correct up front.
The gap between the two bunches goes out to a minute!
95km to go
It’s still rapid and the peloton is still split as we hit another kicker. It’s unclear at the moment if any big names have been caught out.
New attacks go and we have a trio on the move. Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), Valentin Ferron (TotalEnergies) and Clement Rousso (Arkea-Samsic) have moved clear.
Over that first little lump and the peloton has split.
The clock has just ticked over to one hour and we’ve done around 46km already, so that gives an indication of the intensity.
111km to go
The riders are flying down this descent. Given the speed, it’s hard for differences to be made here, and it’ll be on the next couple of lumps that a breakaway is likely to finally form.
This Tirreno-Adriatico was billed as a first battle between Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel. It was Evenepoel who drew a little blood in the opening time trial but Pogacar since went after bonus seconds and then moved into the race lead with his victory yesterday. Evenepoel finished a couple of seconds back but also missed out on the finish line bonuses and so ended up conceding 12 seconds, leaving him now trailing Pogacar by nine seconds. Anyway, here’s Evenepoel’s reaction to yesterday’s events.
Evenepoel faces questions after Pogacar takes flight at Tirreno-Adriatico
A few more attempts on this gentle dip before the main plunge, but nothing sticking.
35km ridden
The race reaches the top of the Valico de Pietra Rossa climb and still we have no breakaway. It’s been a blistering start and it’s only going to get quicker as we now dive downhill.
Thibaut Pinot is among those looking to break clear on the upper reaches of our early climb.
We’re on the climb now and it’s still all together. Remco Evenepoel’s QuickStep-AlphaVinyl teammates – including world champ Julian Alaphilippe – are very active and guarding a watchful eye over proceedings.
We’ve got a climb coming up after 25km which is where we should see a proper selection.
A group of 12 goes clear but is pegged back.
There’s plenty of interest in the breakaway today, it seems. Lots of attacks but nothing being allowed to go clear.
It’s a gentle downhill start and, as such, it’s fast. Nothing sticking in the opening kilometres.
We’re properly off. The flag has been waved and the stage is underway. Here come the first attacks.
Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) is out of the race. He has stomach problems and is one of three non-starters today along with Nacer Bouhanni (Arkea-Samsic) and Simone Consonni (Cofidis).
Before we get going, why not get up to speed with our stage 4 report, where you can also find the full results and plenty of photos.
Tirreno-Adriatico: Pogacar powers away to win stage 4 in Bellante
Here’s a look at those final few kilometres.
The ‘Tappa dei Muri’ (or the ‘Stage of the Walls‘) has become a bit of a Tirreno-Adriatico tradition. This year, we have a number of short steep climbs on what is a short stage at 155km. The most serious stuff comes in the final 30km, with up and down almost all the way.
The final haul to the line features a 750-metre ‘wall’ at 21 per cent, before a brief plateau and then another couple of steep pitches to the line.
We’re off. The riders are rolling out of Sfero and heading towards kilometre-zero for the proper start of the stage.
Hello and welcome along as we head deeper into Tirreno-Adriatico. After yesterday’s trio of climbs in Bellante, today we have a stage that’s weighted even more heavily towards the puncheurs, with a series of short climbs and some severe gradients.
