Italian veteran Matteo Malucelli (XDS-Astana) has captured a memorable shock bunch sprint win on stage 4 of the AlUIa Tour after a slight miscalculation by arch-favourite Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) saw the Italian suffer a surprise defeat in the final metres.
Overall and with one day remaining, the GC remains in the hands of Yannis Voisard (Tudor Pro Cycling), after a largely flat 173-kilometre stage where the main interest boiled down to the final mass dash for the line at Shalal Sijyat Rocks.
The stage 1 and 2 winner could not sustain his effort all the way to the line, allowing Malucelli to flash past Milan – who visibly eased a little, accepting his defeat by the 32-year-old compatriot in the closing metres – whilst Picnic-PostNL’s Frits Biesterbos took third.
How it unfolded
A 16-rider breakaway formed quickly on the largely flat course, with the most dangerous rider present, Mathis Le Berre (TotalEnergies), 49 seconds back on GC. Interest was high, though, in how hard Lidl-Trek would push for Milan, particularly as one DNS was Lidl’s Edward Theuns.
Furthermore, Lidl had no one in the break while race leader Yannis Voisard (Tudor) had a teammate, Lithuanian road and time trial champion Aivaras Mikutis, in the very large move.
The 16 breakaways gained north of two minutes before Tudor started working in earnest in the bunch. But the second major development of the stage came not in the break, but when there was a split in the peloton with around 100 kilometres to go, and Sergio Higuita (Astana-XDS), third overall, was caught out in the back, only to regain contact some 70 kilometres later following a desperate chase.
Meantime, the break was swept up with 56 kilometres to go, and despite some hints of echelons, the flat stage, a strong headwind and looming decisive GC stage on Saturday helped keep things together.
Tudor continued to work hard with early mover Mikutis keeping the race under control for Voisard as they approached the third and final sprint of the day.
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