What a treat the tifosi received on Thursday’s fourth stage of the 61st Tirreno-Adriatico, the Race of the Two Seas, as an elite group got loose on the final climb and Mathieu van der Poel took another gripping win, his second in three days. In coming runner-up Giulio Pellizzari nicked the race lead from Isaac del Toro.
Preliminaries
Del Toro led the GC by four seconds over Pellizzari and 14 over Magnus Sheffield. Primož Roglič was +0:19.
The Course
The big climbs came in the first half of 213 km from Tagliacozzo to Martinsicuro, the Adriatic Sea edging closer every day. Among the smaller climbs in the second half, the last, Tortoreto (Badetta), 1.5 km of 8.4 percent, would prove the toughest, its peak 13 km from the finish line. It was chilly with sporatic rain.
With two hefty climbs in the early going, it was a perfect day for the top two chaps in the KOM competition—Spaniards Diego Sevilla and Joan Bou—to sort out some more points.
Sevilla was part of a dozen fugitives who bounded away before the Ovindoli climb, Bou missing out on the move. Sevilla took maximum points on Ovindoli and Valico delle Capannelle. With 88 km to go, the 12 riders had a 2:00 gap.
As the peloton started to run out of road, the breakaway began to like its chances of survival. On the penultimate categorized climb of Castellalto, Sevilla didn’t get the maximum points, and the peloton moved closer to the escape. The fugitives started attacking one another.
The Tortoreto was proper naughty. With first EF Education-Easypost and then Wout van Aert’s Visma-Lease a Bike yanking along the field, the breakaway didn’t survive to its foot. Most of the heavy hitters clambered at the front of the string behind locomotive Matteo Jorgenson, who chopped it into chunks. Del Toro charged over the top but Pellizzari put in his own thrust. Twelve riders with very little accord steamed towards Martinsicuro.
Anticipation mounted as Jorgenson kept up the pace for Wout van Aert. Ganna went early. Purple-clad van der Poel counterattacked on the right and no one could match his power.
There’s another jagged profile for Friday.
2026 Tirreno-Adriatico, Stage 4
1) Mathieu van der Poel (The Netherlands/Alpecin-Premier…
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