Robert Kiserlovski is preparing himself for the Trek leadership role at the Giro d'Italia and yesterday he showed that he is on the right track by performing excellently in the Tirreno-Adriatico queen stage. Clearly one of the strongest on the final climb, the Croatian animated the finale and his confidence was greatly boosted by the strong showing.

The 244-kilometer stage four, the longest of the race, ended on a 14-kilometer climb up to the finish with an average gradient of 5.3%; however, the final two kilometers ramped up between 7-8%, resulting in the first real test for the overall classification.

Six leaders broke clear inside the first 10-kilometers of racing and built up a lead of almost seven minutes. Movistar led the chase from behind as the leaders splintered on the tough, undulating course, and with less than 40 kilometers remaining only three remained out front with a 90-second lead.

On the bottom slopes of the final climb the last of the escapees were caught, and it would be Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff-Saxo) slipping off the front and gaining 25 seconds. Two others followed but would ultimately lose his wheel as Kreuziger set a blistering pace.

Trek Factory Racing’s Robert Kiserlovski made the first move out of the peloton behind, taking Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo), Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Michele Scarponi (Astana) with him.  Kreuziger was caught under the flamme rouge just as the chasing four were also snagged by a small group behind. The battle was now between 10 leaders for the stage win.

As the road ramped up in the final meters Contador jumped away to claim the victory, with Quintana settling for second, and Daniel Moreno (Katusha) third. Kiserlovski held on for eighth (+11”) moving him into seventh place in the overall (+49”).

Behind Julián Arredondo had a superb climb, finishing in 15th place (+25”), and now sits in 10th place overall (+1’03”).

Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma QuickStep) held onto his leader's jersey with a seventh place on the stage, but Contador leaped into second overall and is now within striking distance at 16 seconds.  Quintana moved up to third.

“I am happy," Kiserlovski said. "I had very good training leading up to this; it was a goal to come here and be ready 200% for the season. We will see. I will take it day by day here, then Catalunya, and then the Giro [d'Italia].  But this is a good sign that I already have such good feeling here; I feel much, much better than last season.

“It was a little bit cold and I did not feel my legs and I needed to get into a rhythm so I jumped on the last climb. I probably should have waited, there was a little bit of a headwind, but it’s like that. In the end we were all there.  

“When Quintana, Scarponi and Contador came up it would have been better if we did a hard rhythm, but Contador did not want to pull with Kreuziger ahead, and Quintana started jumping. For me that was bad.

“I hope that I can do a good race again tomorrow. And I worked hard on my time trialing this winter so we will see about for the TT on the last day. It’s not my favorite, but I must improve that - I am curious to see if my hard work paid off.”

You can read our preview of stage 5 here.