picture 1 to 14
Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) sailed through the final stage of the 2023 Tirreno-Adriatico to take the overall victory as Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) cruised to his second stage win of the race.
A frantic encounter after the San Benedetto del Tronto circuits proved difficult for the legers, but after an increase from Filippo Ganna (Eneos) in the final kilometer, none other than Matteo van der Poel could find a clear passage for the riders’ row and so Phillipsen put Alpecin-Deceuninck’s team mate to victory. On Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla) and Alberto Dainese (Team DSM).
Two victories in the sprint in Tirreno-Adriatico put Philipsen in a role as a contender for Milan-San Remo next Saturday.
“We were able to be in a really good position thanks to all the motivation we got from the previous sprint stage – we knew we could do it again. The team and Matthew again did a great job,” said Phillipsen.
It was touch and go for the sprinters as a persistent eight-man breakaway held the peloton up to three kilometers to go. A series of turns and narrow roads put the pressure on Intermarché-Circus-Wanty and Fabio Jacobsen from Soudal-Quickstep, while last year’s stage winner Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) came up too late to finish fourth.
Roglic, safely ensconced in the peloton, won the all-around and mountains classification and thus lifted the winner’s trophy for the stunning triple-header for the second time in his career. He also earned the points classification.
Joao Almeida (UAE Emirates Team) finished second overall with a time of 18 seconds, while Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) finished third with a time of 23 seconds.
How did it unfold
Wilko Kelderman (Jumbo-Visma), Aleksey Lutsenko (Astana Kazakhstan) and Steve Krass (TotalEnergies) didn’t start the final stage, a 154km circuit around the hills and then the waterfront of San Benedetto del Tronto.
The early rise inspired an attack by Wanance Peters (AG2R-Citroën), Mikel Honore (EF Education-EasyPost), Bruno Armirael (Groupama-FDJ), Valentin Veron (TotalEnergies), Lorenzo Fortunato (Eolo-Kometa), Samuele Zoccarato (Green Project-Bardiani). ), Arthur Kluckers (Tudor) cut from the front after a few kilometers and gained one minute in the peloton.
On the day’s only secret climb, Cossignano at kilometer 23, Henri Vandenabeele (Team DSM) pushed hard and successfully closed the gap, putting him eight riders at the top of the race. And Jan Stöckli (Corretec) and Andreas Leknessund (DSM) also tried to scramble across but were unsuccessful.
Shortly after the leaders had a gap of about 90 seconds, Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) crashed and chose to retire from the race.
The maximum gap of 3:32 came at an unclassified 90km, but the sprinters’ teams didn’t let their lead get out of control. Although the eight riders worked seamlessly together, Soudal’s quickstep worked steadily to whittle away their advantage.
By the time the race got to 20km, the gap had shrunk to less than 20 seconds but the escapees didn’t give up and cut their lead to over 25 seconds. The bell rang 14.6km into the final lap, and a lack of grip in the peloton gave the escapees another 12 seconds and briefly increased their chances.
A slight seven kilometer rise to the breakaway punished the breakaway and his lead fell to 12 seconds as Jayco-AlUla organized and brought the attackers within sight. However, no team seemed to want to finish them off, and persistent combined efforts from Peters, Cleckers, Armirael and others held a seven-second advantage with only four kilometers remaining.
The shape of the peloton went from square to pointy thanks to Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), who took the lead and put the maverick riders out of their misery with three kilometers left to race.
The catch inspired Cofidis to take the lead ahead of a tricky course and narrow down the road. Then Intermarché-Circus-Wanty was battling for the lead but Ganna again came to the front extending the peloton before heavy pressure.
Van der Poel dived past the hour record holder on the final turn and kept going at full speed to line up the peloton and then set Philipsen perfectly. When Philipsen jumped, he had the speed and power to hold off Groenewegen and thus take his second victory in Tirreno-Adriatico of the year.
Results supported by FirstCycling (Opens in a new tab)
“Thinker. Wannabe twitter lover. Entrepreneur. Food fan. Total communicator. Coffee specialist. Web evangelist. Travel fanatic. Gamer.”
More Stories
Wednesday's NBA Playoffs Takeaways: Celtics crush Heat to advance, Mavericks beat Clippers
The German League secures an additional place in the Champions League
LeBron James addresses the future of the NBA and the Lakers on social media – NBC Los Angeles