Electric Van der Poel doubles up at Tirreno-Adriatico as Pellizzari moves into race lead

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) powered to a superb sprint victory after an aggressive tactical battle, which saw a group of favourites go clear in the last 12 kilometres. Van der Poel played his cards to perfection in the finale, timing his sprint to perfection.

With time gaps in the general classification significant, the opportunity for a breakaway stage victory presented itself in the stage opening, and a real fight ensued to get into the breakaway just before the riders went uphill. 

Inside the group were: Tibor Del Grosso (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Jakub Otruba (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA),Rémy Rochas (Groupama-FDJ), Liam Slock (Lotto-Intermarché), Iván García Cortina (Movistar Team), Laurenz Rex (Soudal Quick-Step), Dries De Bondt (Team Jayco AlUla), Mattia Gaffuri (Team Picnic PostNL), Timo Kielich (Team Visma | Lease a Bike), Larry Warbasse (Tudor Pro Cycling) and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) with the group pushing on over the two classified climbs of the day, which were bothover 10 kilometres in length. 

The length of those climbs allowed the breakaway to establish a strong advantage over the chasing peloton behind, with the share majority of the chasing responsibility left to Visma | Lease a Bike and Decathlon CMA CMA, who had their eyes on stage glory.

After descending, the break's chances began to diminish by the kilometre, with their over two-minute advantage tumbling. With 25 kilometres to go, Otruba launched an attack in a bid for the stage and built up a gap of 25 seconds over the original breakaway riders. Still, even then, the peloton was now within a minute of the head of the race.

Inside the final 15 kilometres, steep kickers were located, and it wasn't to be for the chasing group 2 as they were caught just before the Tortoreto, which ramps up to 20%. The situation left Otruba out alone with just a 10-second advantage ahead of the peloton dictated by Visma.

Splits occurred halfway up the climb as Visma lit up the pace on the Tortoreto, with the vast majority of GC riders located within the front split, but as the pace increased on the climb, only a dozen riders were left, and on the 20% section, race leader Isaac del Toro attacked, but it was followed immediately by Van der Poel.

A cagey affair was in store for the final ten kilometres with the group of favourites set to battle for victory, as Matteo Jorgenson was sent to work for Wout van Aert, who was to be challenged by Mathieu van der Poel, Filippo Ganna, and Andrea Vendrame, just some of the riders in the dozen or so group.

Heading into the flamme rouge, attacks were all over and closing them was Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike), but Van der Poel was wise and saved his matches for a monstrous sprint to take the victory ahead of Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) in second and Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) in third. 

Stage 5 of Tirreno-Adriatico sees yet more potential general classification action and new race leader Giulio Pellizzari will be aiming to defend the jersey, leading the former, Del Toro by just two seconds.