by Refresh
It’s looking less good for the break. Having held steady for a while, their lead is now coming down, and is now only 1-20.
They’ve reached the top and are now plummeting down the descent. So begins the eastwards trek back towards the Adriatic coast for the finish of the stage, and this edition of Tirreno-Adriatico, befitting the event known as The Race of the Two Seas.
90KM TO GO
The leaders are currently climbing the last uncategorised hill of the day. From here there’s a descent, after which it’s flat all the way to the finish.
In the peloton, it’s still Lidl-Trek and Alpecin-Deceuninck doing the work.
100KM TO GO
It still seems more likely that they will be caught before the finish than survive, however. With 100km to go, the gap is still a little under two minutes.
As for the other two riders in the break, De Marchi and Rowe might not have the advantage of having a teammate, but have big engines, and Rowe especially should enjoy the flat terrain to come in the second half of the stage.
Also boasting two riders in the break are Bahrain-Victorious, represented by Caruso and Tiberi. These are both very strong riders, and the other riders in the break seem aware of this, allowing them to do much pace-setting.
Like yesterday, there are two EF Education-EasyPost riders in the break, only this time Ben Healy is accompanied by Georg Steinhauser rather than Richard Carapaz. That makes Healy the senior rider, so his role will be reversed today as the protected rider rather than the workhorse.
110KM TO GO
As for the break’s lead, it held steady on the climb, remaining at about 1-45. This is the day’s break, but they’re being kept on a tight leash.
The break have reached the top of the climb, led over by Tiberi. He takes maximum points in the King of the Mountains classification, but it’s all moot, as Vingegaard has that jersey already sewn up.
The leaders are on the climb now. It’s 3.9km long and has an average gradient of 5.2%, without too many fluctuations.
120KM TO GO
The break will start climbing the day’s only categorised climb in just 4km. It could be crucial in determining their chances of survival.
Up ahead, the six riders in the break still have a lead of about 1-30.
In the peloton, Alpecin-Deceuninck and Lidl-Trek are doing the work at the front. They both want to eventually bring things back for a bunch finish, for their respective sprinters Jasper Philipsen and Jonathan Milan.
There’s only one official climb featured today, the Montedinove in about 15km, but immediately before and after that are plenty of undulating roads that make this far from a flat sprinter’s paradise. They’re currently climbing another uncategorised rise.
130KM TO GO
The six leaders can’t be called the day’s break yet, but their lead is growing gradually. It’s now up to almost 1-30.
For the sprinters hoping to bring the race back for a bunch sprint, however, there might be more concern. This is a strong group full of riders who can also keep the pace up on the upcoming flat roads later in the day, as well as being the right kind of size to work together coherently.
From the perspective of the GC riders, there’s no reason not to let this group up the road. Tiberi would have been a threat before yesterday, but he’s now well down at over seven minutes adrift on GC, while the others are all lower still.
Now the gap’s starting to go up substantially. They’ve opened a lead of over a minute. Could this be the break of the day?
Here’s Ben Healy at the start of the stage, initiating the break.
140KM TO GO
No luck for Milesi, who’s been caught. The six leaders haven’t managed to build much of a gap yet either, and currently have only about 15 seconds, but there’s plenty of firepower in it.
Now Lorenzo Milesi attacks, but he hasn’t managed to join the six leaders yet.
The front group’s getting bigger. Damiano Caruso and Georg Steinhauser have joined it, followed by Luke Rowe.
That climb has, as expected, drawn out a high calibre of rider Healy is one of the most dangerous riders in the peloton in terrain like this, De Marchi is a seasoned veteran of breakaway successes, and Tiberi has been in fine form all week, ranking as high as ninth place on GC until yesterday.
All three riders are now together, as they reach the top of the unclassified hill they’ve been climbing since the flag.
Two Italians have set off after Healy: Alessandro De Marchi and Antonio Tiberi.
There’s an attacker from the peloton, and guess who? It’s Ben Healy again! The Irishman really in indefatigable, spending huge amounts of yesterday riding at the front of the race for Richard Carapaz, and hungry for more today
A few more riders haven’t managed to make it to the start: Dion Smith, Max Walscheid, Aimé De Gendt and Biniam Girmay. Girmay’s the name that stands out, as he might have really fancied his chances today, what with the suitable parcours for climbing sprinters like him, and the flashes of form he’s shown this week.
154KM TO GO
The neutralised zone has been completed, and racing has commenced!
A couple of non-starters to report: Mikkel Honoré, who was injured in a crash yesterday, and Daniel Martínez, who, despite doing sterling work for Jai Hindley at the front of the peloton yesterday on the final climb, has a knee problem.
Not long now until the official start – the riders are currently in the neutralised zone, which is 6km today.
As for Vingegaard himself, he was, unsurprisingly, happy with how his week has gone, and explained that he feels more eager for success in these earlier season races, rather than just the Tour de France – even getting his Visma-Lease a Bike teammates to chase down the break yesterday, in order to target the stage win on top of the GC.
Ben O’Connor, who remained fifth on the GC, was in a similarly resigned move. “It was incredible what Jonas did,’’ he told us yesterday, regarding Vingegaard’s attack on Friday’s mountain stage. ‘I did the best I could, I tried to follow for a while but it was a useless attempt.’
Looking back to reaction from yesterday’s stage, everyone was resigned to not being able to do anything to stop Vingegaard. By finishing second behind him, Ayuso described himself as ‘the first human in the race’ – a phrasing we hear more and more these days in races involving one of cycling’s Big Six.
The action is set to kick off in about half an hour’s time, and we can expect plenty of attacks from out the gate, as breakaway specialists sniff an opportunity of a stage win. It’s an uphill start, too, which should aid the stronger climbers who try to get clear.
That’s not to say that today’s stage will be lacking in excitement. It looks to have a finely balanced parcours, which could see a strong breakaway go clear in the early, hilly part of the route and make it to the finish to contest the spoils, as equally as everything could come back together for a bunch sprint.
The final stage of the 2024 Tirreno-Adriatico is set to get underway with the GC already effectively wrapped up. Jonas Vingegaard stamped his authority on the race with two consecutive mountain stage wins, giving him a lead of 1-24 over Juan Ayuso in second and 1-52 over Hindley in third, ahead of a stage lacking the parcours for GC attacks.
Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews’ live coverage of Tirreno-Adriatico for the final stage 7!
