Mere centimeters separated Paul Magnier from what would have been his sixth podium of the season.
The Paris-Nice peloton is on a mission of reaching the sun this week, but the same can be said also about the riders in Tirreno-Adriatico, who once again had to face a crazy, gruelling, cold and apparently neverending stage that took them to Trasacco. On paper, it could have gone either way: a breakaway had their chance of succeeding, helped by the climbs in the first part of the course and also by the weather which made it difficult for the peloton to control things, but the sprinters also had their chance, thanks to a long descent and the completely flat roads in the final 70 kilometers.
With these race conditions, to which some rare Italian echelons were added, it came as no surprise that the peloton fragmented on the lasgt ascent of the stage, which ignited a long chase of more than 55 kilometers. At one pointot , when the gap was close to reaching one minute, Soudal Quick-Step assumed pace-setting duties and stormed to the front of the group with five riders, who in the space of just five kilometers managed to wipe out that deficit and make the junction thanks to a superb effort.
Our team was responsible also for bringing back the last survivors of the day’s original breakaway with 500 meters to go, before Casper Pedersen launched Paul Magnier, who despite being almost empty after this draining stage, still found the resources to take fourth behind Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike), only a couple of centimeters separating him from the podium. The general classification remained unchanged, which means that Mattia Cattaneo retained his fifth place.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images
