The fourth day at Tirreno-Adriatico began promising for Bora – Argon 18. Paul Voss was part of an early top-class lead-group of 10 riders. Unfortunately, the field found this group to be too dangerous so it was neutralized quickly. Then, after two riders went clear the field focused on the two tough finishing laps.

Wout Poels (Sky) won with a solo attack. Rigoberto Uran (Etixx – Quick Step) and Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) finished second and third. Paul Voss crossed the line with a chasing group in 37th place.

“We planned to ride for Jose [Mendes] today because he had a great position in the GC before the stage. Unfortunately he didn’t have the legs to compete with the best. We don’t know the reason for it yet but we changed our tactics during the stage already.

”Paul and Cristiano [Salerno] rode in front during the first finishing laps and in the final one they rode as best as possible today”, said Enrico Poitschke, Sport Director of Bora – Argon 18 to the Bora website.

The stage tomorrow is considered the queen stage of the Italian race as it ends with a mountain top finish that will pre-decide the overall classification. The riders have to climb for almost 16 kilometers up to Terminillo in a height of 1,675 meters where even snowfall is predicted for tomorrow.

“The stage will be a real tough one. It starts immediately with a climb and the final mountain is as hard as real pass. Looking back at the last days we can’t expect too much for tomorrow in terms of a result. Therefore we’ll focus on the break-away – which will be highly competitive anyway”, Poitschke looks ahead.