Olav Kooij sprinted to victory on stage four of Tirreno-Adriatico after a brutal day out in Italy, with the weather making an impact yet again on Thursday.
While many sprinters were distanced by a tough course and torrid weather, the Visma-Lease a Bike rider return to the lead group to claim victory in Trasacco, after briefly losing out in crosswinds.
Kooij was hidden until it mattered, and had the power to beat Rick Pluimers (Tudor Pro Cycling) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in the closing metres.
There was pretty much everything on Thursday's stage, with two early climbs resulting in many of the sprinters losing contact with the peloton, then wind and rain causing further splits. Two members of the day's early break weren't even caught until 500m to go. Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) remains in the race lead, coming in seventh on the day.
"We really fought for it," Kooij said. "I thought I made it over the climb, because we set the pace there to keep the break close, but on the plateau, we were surprised a bit by echelons. That set us on the back foot. Sometimes I thought we would come back and other times I didn't really believe any more, but the guys did great work, and once I was back I knew I had to switch on and go for it.
"[Getting ill at the UAE Tour] was a setback, but I had a good rerstart in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and I was looking forward to this race. I did it once before, but I wanted to win a stage here as well. I'm super happy that after a hard fight today I got it.
Asked how it impacts his future goals, which include targeting stages at the Giro d'Italia this year: "We see race by race and I will try to do my best. The goal was to win a stage, and after a fight like this today, I'm really happy to do it."
How it happened
The day was always set to be a chaotic one, with bad weather forecast, and a classified climb straight from the gun.
An early break, which involved Mark Donovan (Q36.5) and Roger Adrìa (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) opened up a lead, with the latter winning the points atop the Forca della Civita. However, they were soon caught.
It was on the next rise, an unclassified climb, where the day's break was established, however. With 142km to go Jonas Rutsch (Intermarché-Wanty), Jorge Arcas (Movistar), Mirco Maestri (Polti-VisitMalta), Gijs Leemreiz (Picnic-PostNL) and William Blume Levy (Uno-X Mobility) escaped up the road. They would remain out in front for the majority of the stage.
Importantly for the finish, the Valico La Crocetta proved too tough a climb for some sprinters, including Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco AlUla). Maestri was first to the top of the climb.
With 79km to go, once the summit had been reached, crosswinds came into play, with Ineos Grenadiers in particular putting the hammer down. This then repeated again with 43km to go, with riders including Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step) and Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) losing out. Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) also failed to keep contact with the favourites.
All this time, the break was still surviving up the road, with chaos behind. In the end, with 15km to go, the split was undone in the bunch, but there were a lot of tired riders out there.
At 5km to go Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) attacked, followed by Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck). Healy then went again, and made contact with what was left of the break; Maestri and Blume Levy were clinging on.
They went until the flamme rouge with a gap, but were caught with 400m to go. Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) launched the sprint first, but was rounded by Van der Poel, Rick Pluimers (Tudor Pro Cycling), and finally, the winner - Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike).
Results
Tirreno Adriatico 2025 stage four: Norcia > Trasacco (190km)
1. Olav Kooij (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 4:48:05
2. Rick Pluimers (Ned) Tudor Pro Cycling
3. Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Deceuninck
4. Paul Magnier (Fra) Soudal Quick-Step
5. Mirco Maestri (Ita) Polti-VisiMalta
6. Andrea Vendrame (Ita) Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale
7. Filippo Ganna (Ita) Ineos Grenadiers
8. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Q36.5 Pro Cycling
9. Giovanni Lonardi (Ita) Polti-VisitMalta
10. Filippo Fiorelli (Ita) VF Group-Bardiani CDS-Faizanè, all at same time
General classification after stage four
1. Filippo Ganna (Ita) Ineos Grenadiers, in 16:14:00
2. Juan Ayuso (Esp) UAE-Team Emirates-XRG, +22s
3. Antonio Tiberi (Ita) Bahrain Victorious, +29s
4. Derek Gee (Can) Israel-Premier Tech, +34s
5. Mattia Cattaneo (Ita) Soudal-Quick Step, +36s
6. Kévin Vauquelin (Fra) Arkéa-B&B Hotels, +41s
7. Eddy Dunbar (Ire) Jayco-AlUla, +44s
8. Laurens De Plus (Bel) Israel-Premier Tech, +45s
9. Ben Healy (Ire) EF Education-EasyPost, +48s
10. Romain Grégoire (Fra) Groupama-FDJ, at same time
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