March 12, 2026
Today, we will experience the great diversity of landscape within Abruzzo and get our first glimpse of the Adriatic Sea and the empty beach towns that are still months away from waking up. Before the beach however, the riders must pass over two long climbs through the lower Apennines to get there. Once out of Tagliacozzo, the race will head East and arrive at the base of Ovindoli, a 12KM climb at almost 5%. After a long descent, the riders will reach L'Aquila, site of devastation after an earthquake in 2009 leveled parts of the town and killed over 300 people. Immediately after leaving L'Aquila, the race will ascend the 13KM, 5% Valico della Capannelle which reaches 1,300M above sea level. At this point, there will still be 111KM remaining of the 213KM stage but the riders get a breath with the next 55KM being all downhill. There are four more climbs before the race will arrive at the coast. The first is Castellalto, 7.6KM at 4.5% followed by the 3.8KM, 3.1% Mosciano Sant'Angelo with bonus seconds available at the top. At 18KM to go, there is a 2KM ramp at 5% then the final climb of the day, the Tortoreto, which is 1.5KM at over 8%. The last 8KM are along the coast and into Martinsicuro for the finish. It will take a hearty sprinter to reach the finish in the front group but it is more likely that a strong break or a puncheur who can sprint from a reduced group will challenge for the win.
Race Summary
Spring has not arrived yet in the mountains and riders were wrapped up in their thermal Winter gear as they rolled out of Tagliacozzo. The flag was dropped at KM0 and a series of attacks went straight away. Twelve riders broke away and the group consisted of Tibor Del Grosso of Alpecin-Premier Tech, Jakub Otruba of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, Liam Slock of Lotto Intermarché, Rémy Rochas of Groupama-FDJ United, Iván García Cortina of Movistar, Laurenz Rex of Soudal Quickstep, Jonas Abrahamsen of Uno-X Mobility, Larry Warbasse of Tudor Pro Cycling, Dries De Bondt of Jayco AlUla, Diego Pablo Sevilla of Polti-VisitMalta, Timo Kielich of Visma-Lease a Bike, and Mattia Gaffuri of Picnic-PostNL. Sevilla took maximum points atop Ovindoli and Valico della Capannelle and, with 95KM to go on the long descent off the Capannelle, the break had 1 minute 45 seconds remaining of their maximum 2 minutes 30 advantage.
UAE-XRG were chasing in the peloton but it wasn't full and when they arrived on the valley road after the Capannelle, the gap had grown to nearly 3 minutes. With 56.5KM to go, the break turned off the main road and on to the Castellalto. There was a surge in the bunch to get into position which cut 40 seconds off the gap in no time. With 2.5KM still to the top, Xabier Azparren of Pinarello Q36.5 went on the attack from the peloton but never managed to get more than 10 seconds off the front and was eventually reeled back in. The move did spur the peloton on a bit quicker and the gap was cut to just 90 seconds. Rochas felt the pressure and was the first to move away from the front group, just before the top of Catellalto.
Rochas was brought back on the descent but the group split again as Otruba and Slock counter attacked. Del Grosso, García Cortina, Gaffuri, Abrahamsen, and Warbasse also made the split and the group was clear with 38KM to go. 7KM later at the base of the Mosciano Sant'Angelo, the dropped riders managed to come back to the front group but García Cortina immediately attacked and the group threatened to split once more. Meanwhile, in the peloton, NSN Cycling started to chase along with Bahrain Victorious. Otruba had chipped off the front of the break on the rise to Mosciano Sant'Angeloand was solo. He took the points and bonus seconds but the gap to the bunch was down to 1 minute 15 seconds.
Otruba descended through the olive groves and vineyards with a few hills in sight ahead and the sea sparkling in the distance. Although he built 30 seconds on the rest of the break, the peloton were charging behind. Visma-Lease a Bike took control and with 17KM to go, Otruba was the only one remaining out front but only by 20 seconds. Otruba made the sharp right turn on to the Tortoreto with 14.5KM to go, just 7 seconds ahead of the peloton, and was caught almost immediately as Visma-Lease a Bike ramped up the pace. Matteo Jorgenson took up the pace setting duties with Wout van Aert, Ben Healy of EF-Education EasyPost, and Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin-Premier Tech on his wheel. Jorgenson did major damage to the group and only a dozen riders were left by the top. Other riders in the group were Filippo Ganna Ineos, Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek, Alessandro Pinarello of NSN Cycling, Primož Roglič and Giulio Pellizzari of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Isaac del Toro of UAE-XRG, Tobias Johannessen of Uno-X Mobility, and Clément Champoussin of XDS-Astana.
At the bottom with 8KM to go, Andrea Vendrame of Jayco AlUla and Jan Christen of UAE-XRG latched on the group to make 14 at the front of the race. Jorgenson kept the pace as high as he could to keep things together with the idea of van Aert sprinting for the win. Jorgenson didn't get any help from the others in the group. With 4.5KM to go, Pellizzari pulled away from sitting in second wheel and no one filled the gap. Jorgenson noticed the void and hit the gas. Del Toro closed it down and with 3.5KM to go, the whole group was looking at each other with counter attacks seeming imminent. Jorgenson gathered his breath and returned to the front to drive the group to the line.
Under the 1KM banner, Christen sent a flyer from the back of the group. Van Aert closed the gap and a counter attack came from Ganna with Vendrame in his wheel. Van Aert and van der Poel closed this move down and as soon as Ganna was retained within the group, van der Poel kicked again. It was 300M from the line but everyone was on their knees at this point and the Dutchman got a gap. He was forced to sit down with 100M to go but one more burst of speed out of the saddle was all he needed. He sailed across the line as the winner of Stage 4 on what felt like a Sanremo style finale and perhaps foreshadowing for the Primavera in two weeks. Pellizzari sprinted in for second with Johannessen in for third.
In the GC, the bonus seconds for Pellizzari moved him ahead of del Toro and the Italian will wear the Blue leader's jersey tomorrow. Missing from the front group was Antonio Tiberi, Alan Hatherly, Magnus Sheffield, and Javier Romo, all of whom dropped in the GC having finished in a group 26 seconds down.