Ineos Grenadiers endured a day of contrasts at Tirreno-Adriatico on Thursday, with Tom Pidcock crashing before he had a chance to fight for the stage victory, Filippo Ganna losing the race lead to Leonard Kemna but with Tao Geoghegan Hart finishing fifth after looking good in the surge on the uphill finish to Tortoreto.
Pidcock had a lot of road rash and perhaps faced a painful night, but he finished stage 4 and quickly reassured everyone that he was not injured.
Ganna suffered on the four climbs up to Tortoreto but was only distanced with 2.3km to go as the final climb kicked in. He then rode in and so slipped to 55th overall, 4:48 on new race leader Leonard Kemna (Bora-Hansgrohe).
“I felt OK, but when Julian Alaphilippe attacked on the second time up the climb, I suffered. I had to carry a lot more weight up the climb than he and most others did,” Ganna said.
“We should have done the race for Tom, but then he crashed, so we switched to plan B. Now we’ll see what happens. Tao is going well, and Thymen Arensman, too, so we’ll try and help them in the remaining stages.”
Geoghegan Hart enjoyed a far more enjoyable day, riding up front on the final climb as the speed increased and everyone suffered.
He seemed primed to sprint for victory, but Primož Roglič had more power for the final kick to the line, leaving the 2020 Giro d’Italia winner frustrated about going so close to victory.
“I thought I had the legs to win, but it’s such fine margins on finishes like that one. I was up there but got little to show for it,” he told Cyclingnews.
Geoghegan Hart had two mistakes that perhaps cost him a shot at victory.
“When Hugh Carthy went in the final kilometre, he was super strong. Maybe I should have just kept going and then gone over the top of him. It was one of the finishes that are really hard to get right.”
Geoghegan Hart won on a similar finish at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana in February but admitted he made a mistake as the best riders in Tirreno-Adriatico prepared to sprint to the line.
“I didn’t want to be first into the last corner, but if you let one guy pass, three go through the gap,” he explained.
“I started running at Enric Mas in the final straight, but I went on the barrier side and then had to brake, so other guys got past me. It’s small things like that make the difference on finishes like this one.”
Geoghegan Hart moved up to eighth overall, only 19 seconds down on Kemna, and so still in the…
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