Breakaway surprises once more on stage four in Slovakia

As if the lesson of stage three had not been enough, stage four of Okolo Slovenska produced another upset as the remnants of the early breakaway held off a frantic chasing peloton to take a stage win that had looked all but certain to end in a bunch sprint — with Filippo Ridolfo finishing in the top 30 for Team Novo Nordisk.

The fourth stage was the longest and flattest of the race at 197.6km, a transition stage designed to bring the peloton closer to tomorrow’s mountain-top finale on Králová Hoľa. For the fourth consecutive day, the majority of the racing was spent at a controlled tempo behind a five-man breakaway — but as has been the pattern all week, the escape proved harder to reel in than expected.

“The move went early today,” said Ridolfo. “There were a few attempts right from the start and we tried to be there, but we missed the one that made it. No one expected them to stay away to the end, but when the time gap came through in the closing kilometres we knew it was going to be close.”

Ridolfo found himself caught up in the frantic finale but without the legs to challenge at the very front of the sprint. “I was in the front group, but I didn’t have the legs to be right at the pointy end with the sprinters,” he said. “The chase was frantic and it was all out right until the line — they hung on and it was really strung out over those last kilometres.”

With the race now heading into its decisive conclusion, attention turns firmly to tomorrow’s summit finish. “One more hilly day to go and it will be one for the climbers for sure with the summit finish on Králová Hoľa,” said Ridolfo — and with David Lozano, Hamish Armitt and Antono Polga in the team’s ranks, the stage is set for Team Novo Nordisk to end the race on a high.