After a rather anonymous start to the 2014 season, Philippe Gilbert (BMC) gave the first signs that he will be ready for the classics when he finished 4th in today's tough uphill sprint in Tirreno-Adriatico. The Belgian knew that stage winner Peter Sagan would be hard to beat and so tried to anticipate him by launching an early move.

BMC Racing Team's Philippe Gilbert led out the uphill dash to the finish Friday at Tirreno-Adriatico on the way to a fourth-place finish.  The 206-kilometer race from Cascina to Arezzo was capped by four laps of a circuit featuring a steady – and steep at times – uphill drag to the finish.

Bjorn Thurau (Team Europcar) enjoyed the most freedom from a five-rider breakaway that also included Cesare Benedetti (Team NetApp-Endura), Nicola Boem and Marco Canola (both of Bardiani-CSF) and Jay Thomson (MTN-Qhubeka). Thurau was ultimately reeled in with six kilometers to go.

Starting his sprint about 350 meters out, Gilbert was overtaken by eventual stage winner Peter Sagan (Cannondale Pro Cycling), who had enough time to sit up and celebrate ahead of runner-up Michal Kwiatowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Simon Clarke (ORICA-GreenEDGE) in third. 

BMC Racing Team leader Cadel Evans placed 19th and in a group of 20 riders who crossed the line six seconds after Sagan.

Kwiatowski kept the overall lead, 10 seconds ahead of teammate Rigoberto Uran and 13 seconds ahead of Clarke (ORICA-GreenEDGE). Gilbert is the BMC Racing Team's best-placed rider, 53 seconds bacon in 31st, while Evans is 36th, 59 seconds back.

"At first, I had great help from Danilo Wyss," Gilbert said. "The last two kilometers, he did a great lead out for me. Then, I was following Kwiatowski and his teammates from Quick Step. I was expecting that I could find a moment to go. With about 350 meters to go, there was a little 's' corner. I was hoping to take advantage of this. On the last corner, I had maybe two meters on Sagan. Then he just passed me after. I gave everything to the line and then two other riders passed me just at the line.

"I've been saying that I'd be okay for months," he added to Cyclingnews. "I knew I was heading in the right direction. This result is good for my confidence. My base form is good but now I just want to work more and improve."

"The team was very good," sports director Valerio Piva said. "The objective was also not to lose time with Cadel and to try to do a good result with Philippe. He was in a good position, with Danilo delivering him in very good position. Philippe might have gone too early, but he was beaten by Sagan, who is very strong and in shape. So Philippe is improving every day. I am happy because this is the first time I have seen him very good in the final from a hard, long stage that finished like this."

You can read our preview of stage 4 here.