Lennart Jasch steals the spotlight with breakaway surprise on Tour of the Alps queen stage

Lennart Jasch (Tudor) caused a major upset on stage 4 of the Tour of the Alps, soloing to victory after being part of the early breakaway.

The 25-year-old German was part of a five-rider breakaway and distanced his companions, going solo with around 25km remaining on what was considered the queen stage. 

Jasch, who had only recently made the transition from speed skating to professional cycling, managed to maintain his advantage over the chasing GC group to deliver the biggest moment of his career in Trento. 

The German even had time to plan his celebrations, finishing 0:10 ahead of Matteo Sobrero (Lidl-Trek) in 2nd and 0:11 over Federico Iacomoni (Ukyo) in 3rd. The GC group was led home by Jasch’s teammate and compatriot Florian Stork (Tudor) in 4th.

It marks Tudor’s first victory since February, and Jasch is technically not even a professional as he registered to Tudor Pro Cycling Team U23. 

Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) remains the leader of the Tour of the Alps with one stage remaining, but the Italian will know the job is far from done. 

The Ineos Grenadiers duo of Thymen Arensman and Egan Bernal sit 2nd and 3rd at 0:04, while Pellizzari’s teammate Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) is 4th at 0:06.

A five-rider breakaway formed featuring Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost), Christopher Juul-Jensen (Jayco AlUla), Lennart Jasch (Tudor), Rainer Kepplinger (Bahrain-Victorious) and Simone Raccani (Ukyo)

Jasch tried multiple times to go solo with an attack, and the German initially gained an advantage over his companions with just under 50km to go, before being reeled in. Meanwhile, Pinarello-Q36.5 led the pace setting in the peloton, with Red Bull-BORA-Hansgrohe also positioned towards the front

With 25km remaining on the ascent to Sant’Agnese, Jasch pushed clear once more and built an advantage of around 10 seconds over Kepplinger and Raccani, with the peloton still led by Pinarello one minute behind.

Just like on stage 3, Juan Felipe Rodriguez (EF Education-EasyPost) attacked from the peloton with 21km remaining. 

On the rise to Povo with 10km remaining, Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5), before Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) both launched their own counterattacks, forming a selective GC group, with Pidcock distanced. 

With bonus seconds at the top of the climb, Jasch took the maximum six, with Vlasov taking four and Egan Bernal two, as the rest of the breakaway, plus Rodriguez, were caught.

Rudy Porter (Jayco AlUla), who launched an attack with 6km remaining, almost went the wrong way at a roundabout, which scuppered his move. 

Matteo Sobrero (Lidl-Trek) and Federico Iacomoni (Ukyo) went over the top as the road flattened, and were 17 seconds behind Jasch with 5km remaining.

Pidcock and his teammate Chris Harper (Pinarello-Q36.5) returned to the front of the GC group, setting the pace, but the gap was almost at 30 seconds to the lone leader with 3km remaining.

In the end, Sobrero and Iacomoni reduced the deficit to Jasch, but it was ultimately too late, and the German had enough in the tank to secure his first professional victory.