Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) took a dramatic victory on stage four of the 2019 Tirreno-Adriatico, even if the Kazakh rider crashed twice in the last 12 kilometres.
With 36 kilometres to go, the escape was caught and several attacks forced splits in the bunch as a group with favourites like Tom Dumoulin, Jakob Fuglsang, Adam Yates, Primoz Roglic and Alexey Lutsenko was formed in front.
The Kazakh champion decided to make a move and went away by himself, but with 12 kilometres to go Lutsenko miscalculated a curve and went off the road. He crashed again on a corner with 1.2km to go and despite managing to quickly remount his bike, he was caught shortly after.
Lutsenko then launched his sprint first with around 100m to go and as Yates briefly hesitated, he got the jump on Roglic and was able to hold on to take a hard earned victory.
“I crashed twice in the last 20km. It made it very difficult for me. Fortunately, there was my teammate, Jakob Fuglsang, in the three-man group behind. I crashed again so I’m really happy that I made up with a stage win for this very bad day. It gives me more motivation for tomorrow and the big classics,” Lutsenko said.
Yates maintains the overall lead with a time of 15:53:42. Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) trails the leader by seven seconds and Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) by 50 seconds.
#TirrenoAdriatico – stage four victory goes to @AstanaTeam's @AlexeyLutsenko3 ahead of @JumboVismaRoad's @rogla and @MitcheltonSCOTT's @AdamYates7 ?
? @Eurosport_UK pic.twitter.com/KdfgqSKHNj
— Velon CC (@VelonCC) March 16, 2019
Tirreno-Adriatico 2019 – stage 4 results (Foligno – Fossombrone):
| 1 | Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) | 5:16:29 |
| 2 | Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) | ,, |
| 3 | Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 4 | Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) | ,, |
| 5 | Davide Formolo (Bora-hansgrohe) | +09” |
| 6 | Alberto Bettiol (EF Education First) | +23” |
| 7 | Simon Clarke (EF Education First) | ,, |
| 8 | Tiesj Benoot (Lotto Soudal) | ,, |
| 9 | Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | ,, |
| 10 | Wout Poels (Team Sky) | ,, |
Tirreno-Adriatico 2019 – general classification after stage 4:
| 1 | Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | 15:53:42 |
| 2 | Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) | +07” |
| 3 | Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) | +50” |
| 4 | Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | +56” |
| 5 | Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 6 | Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) | +01’06” |
| 7 | Wout Poels (Team Sky) | +01’16” |
| 8 | Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) | +01’19” |
| 9 | Alberto Bettiol (EF Education First) | +01’21” |
| 10 | Simon Clarke (EF Education First) | +01’25” |
