Coppi e Bartali: Axel Laurance captures second stage to move into overall lead with one day remaining

How it unfolded

The fourth and penultimate stage of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali offered the field a 159.6km route from Ponte di Piave to Valdobbiadene.

The route was relatively flat for the first 100km and then hit the final two main ascents of the day over Rolle (2.2km at 3.2%) and Combai (3.1km at 5%), before reaching the final circuit at the short finish climb.

Schmid started the day in the leader’s jersey, having taken it off the back of Filippo D’Aiuto (General Store-Essegibi-F.Lli Curia) on the previous stage 3 into Iseo. Tommaso Dati (Team UKYO), who won stage 3, sat in second place overall, just two seconds behind, while stage 1 winner Laurance slipped to third, also two seconds down.

A series of moves along the flatter sections at the start of the stage led to an early breakaway that included Filippo Agostinacchio (EF Education-EasyPost-Oatly) and Emanuele Ansaloni (Team Technipes #inEmiliaRomagna Caffè Borbone), along with Matteo Spreafico (Mg.K Vis Costruzioni e Ambiente).

The trio gained nearly three minutes on the peloton, but with the peloton, led by Ineos Grenadiers and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, launching a full chase behind, the gap dropped to 30 seconds before the start of the last two categorized climbs and into the final circuit.

Spreafico was the first rider to be distanced from the breakaway. However, Agostinacchio and Ansaloni still held a slim 18-second gap halfway up the climb leading into the first passage of the finish line in Valdobbiadene.

The two riders crested the climb but were ultimately caught on the descent with 14km remaining.

There were a series of new attacks from Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling, Polti VisitMalta, and EF Education-EasyPost. However, the reduced field was all together inside one kilometre to go on the uphill drag to the finish line, where Laurance claimed his second victory of the five-day race.