Tirreno-Adriatico: stage 4 goes to Kooij, Filippo Ganna stays in blue jersey

Tirreno-Adriatico: stage 4 è by Kooij, Filippo Ganna remains in blue jersey

Olav Kooij conquers the fourth stage of the 190km-long Tirreno-Adriato, starting in Norcia and finishing in Trasacco. The Dutch sprinter, bearer of Team Visma | Lease a Bike, beat compatriots Rick Pluimers and Mathieu Van der Poel in the sprint. 

"I really like this race and I didn’t want to go home empty-handed, so today’s stage was one that I aimed for from day one,” admitted Kooij at the press conference.” I knew that the stage was divided into two parts and that I would have to suffer in the first one in order to have a chance in the finale. On the longest climb of the day, the team è put itself in the front of the peloton to make a pace that was not too demanding forò I got caught in the next section".

" Having teammates suited for more flat courses like here at Tirreno è was very helpful, they told me not to panic and that we would come back, even though I wasn’t always too coaxed about it. In the finale I wanted to repay their work and I succeeded. My program for the Giro d'Italia, where I want to be a protagonist, includes some one-day races and then a short stop" concluded the winner.

Filippo Ganna remains in the blue jersey, maintaining the leadership of the general classification with a 22-second advantage over the Spaniard Juan Ayuso (Uae Team Emirates XRG) and 29" over compatriot Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious).

"Today I aimed to give another satisfaction to the team, also out of gratitude given the work of these days, but unfortunately I am not yet soì skilled in bunch sprints and I could not find the right cue – the words of the blue -. It was a chaotic final, after going to catch Van der Poel I paid the effort feeling also a principle of cramps. These are all useful tests ahead of the upcoming events. Tomorrow è a very hard stage, I will tryò to defend the Maglia Azzurra as long as I canè ".