Tappa dei Muri does not fulfil expectations: Early breakaway rider Dversnes holds off favorites, van der Poel settles for second place

The past few days were a real ordeal for the riders. After the soaking wet and cold third stage, it was freezing cold again in the fourth stage. The wind also played a major role there, and echelons characterized the day. So it was lovely to see the Italian sun at the start of Friday's stage: the riders began the challenging hill climb in mild temperatures.

There was a breeze, but it did not prevent a breakaway group from setting off. Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) took off immediately after the start, followed by Dredrik Dversnes (Uno-X), King of the Mountains Manuele Tarozzi (Bardiani), Paul Ourselin (Cofidis), Francisco Muñoz (Polti VisitMalta), Gal Glivar and fellow countryman Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Deceuninck). It was a group full of strong names, and they all hoped to outsmart the peloton.

The lead reached a maximum of seven minutes, but halfway through the race, the peloton gradually closed the gap. Muñoz could not keep up at the front, and Meurisse was dropped later. With about fifty kilometers to go, there were only five men left. They led under four minutes on the peloton, where UAE Team Emirates worked for team leader Juan Ayuso. A major setback was Eddie Dunbar's crash. The Jayco-AlUla climber crashed hard (along with Florian Stork of Tudor) and fell again after trying to get up; he had to abandon the race.

Without the Irishman, the race went through Pergola for the first time. The leaders continued to ride steadily, but the final stretch would be very difficult. The first climb in the final phase was the Salita di Barbanti. Chris Hamilton of Picnic PostNL was the first to give it a go. He was joined by Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale). As a result, the men at the front had a minute-and-a-half lead over the first pursuers when they reached the top. It was downhill until the difficult Monterolo in the final stretch.

The peloton continued quickly in the valley, but the leaders were at least as fast. The five breakaway riders began the final climb with a one-minute lead. However, the pace was fast, especially when Nairo Quintana attacked. The Colombian rode away, but UAE continued to control the race, with Isaac Del Toro setting the pace. Suddenly, everyone was going full gas. Dversnes was the last man left in the lead. Behind him, everyone remained in the saddle until a few hundred meters from the top, when Ayuso broke away. Pidcock, Ganna, and Hindley were right with him, but Van der Poel was also there. There was still a 15-second gap.

After that, it was a 7.5-kilometre descent. Ayuso dove into the descent at high speed, so the gap to Dversnes suddenly decreased dramatically. About twenty extremely strong cyclists chased him, but they still had to catch him. They were not working well together, so the gap increased again, and the breakaway attempts of Pidcock and Van der Poel came too late. The Norwegian rode off to claim the biggest victory of his career.