Tobias Ludvigsson got a chance to test his climbing skills on a long ascent in yesterday's Tirreno-Adriatico queen stage. The young Swede fared wellto finish 31st and has now set his sights on the final time trial.

Yesterday’s fourth stage of Tirreno-Adriatico presented the first mountain finish of the race and the first real test for Team Giant-Shimano.

The team were focused on Tobias Ludvigsson and to see how he could fare on a long climb such as that at the end of the stage today.

The stage was set to be a real test for those looking to make an imprint in the overall classification, with two categorised climbs in the first half of the lengthy 244km stage and then a 14km climb to finish, with the final two kilometres pitched at between 7-8% gradient.

The day’s breakaway went right from the drop of the flag as six riders pulled away and quickly set about building their advantage. With 100km to race their advantage was 6’50″ and this fell gradually as the race rolled onwards.

Three of the six pulled away in a final attempt to stay ahead but their days were numbered and at the base of the final climb the race was all back together.

This sparked a series of attacks on the early slopes and different riders came and went as even more were spat out the rear of the peloton. Ludvigsson held on for as long as possible but was eventually dropped by the thinning front group of overall favourites.

Int he final few hundred metres Alberto Contador (Saxo – Tinkoff) jumped away from his rivals to take the stage win while Michal Kwiatkowski (OPQS) held strong to conserve his overall lead.

“It was a long day in the saddle today but it was good to see how I am climbing against some of the best climbers in the world,” said Ludvigsson on the bus after the stage.

“The guys did a good job in keeping me up there before the climbs and Simon [Geschke] positioned me before the long one at the end.I held on for as long as possible but the pace a bit too much at the end. I’m still focused on the time trial on Tuesday and am happy with the form here so it will be nice test after a hard week or racing.”

Coach Aike Visbeek said: “It was a long hard day today but they guys stuck to the plan – to set up Tobias for the final climb and then for him to test himself on a long ascent like that. They did a great job putting him into position for the climbs and then Simon Geschke stayed with him to position him for the final climb.

“He rode well for a young rider and it’s good to have opportunities like this to keep developing. The rest of the team including Marcel Kittel came through fine in a good groupetto and are focused on the sprint stage on Monday. Roy [Curvers] was ok after crashing yesterday. He had a bit of pain early on but was never in trouble.”

You can read our preview of stage 5 here.