Young rider Dylan Hicks of Saint Piran will never forget the 196.53-kilometre-long fourth stage of the ΔΕΗ International Tour of Hellas 2024, from Spercheiada to Chalkida. The 20-year-old Briton surprisingly won the bunch sprint after a thrilling finale, registering the first professional victory of his career.
General classification leader Riccardo Zoidl retained the cyan jersey thanks to the fantastic team effort by his Team Felt Felbermayr mates, which helped him finish inside the big group.
With only one stage remaining, the Austrian looks like the strong favourite to become on Sunday the winner of this year’s Tour.
Among the winners of the day was Poland’s Bartosz Rudyk of ATT Investments, as he finished second in the stage and grabbed the points jersey as well. Third was Belgian Bo Godart of Tarteletto – Isorex.
Czech Tomas Pradil of Elkov – Kasper managed to keep the best young rider jersey.
The race
There were numerous attacks in the beginning of the stage. Filippo Tagliani of Vini Monzon - Savini Due – OMZ won the first intermediate sprint in Lamia, a few kilometres before the first breakaway group started to shape up.
Soon, the group was split in two, nevertheless the peloton soon caught them up and the first categorised climb in Eleftherochori was won by Bike Aid's Anton Schiffer. The German secured five valuable points which turned out to be enough to award him the KoM jersey.
It didn’t take long till a large group of 35 riders was formed. Four of them, Caja Rural - Seguros RGA's Jefferson Cepeda, Burgos BH's Antonio Angulo, Mazowsze Serce Polski's Pawel Bernas and Saint Piran's Tyler Hanney decided to break away.
The two intermediate sprints that followed in Livadeia and Thebes were won by Hanney and Angulo respectively.
The peloton caught up with the breakaway riders just before the day’s final KoM in Profitis Elias, which was eventually won by Giacomo Ballabio of Global 6 United.
With no points at stake until the final sprint, the majority of the riders formed a large group and it became clear that the stage victory would be decided by a bunch sprint in Chalkida, which actually happened.
In the end, 20-year-old Dylan Hicks of Saint Piran won the stage, half a wheel ahead of Bartosz Rudyk. Belgian Bo Godart finished third.
Quotes
Dylan Hicks: “This was my first professional stage win. It was pretty sketchy to it down to the bottom.
“We said from the beginning we needed to go to top five, but we catch the opportunity to go down to final descent and go to the finish line.
“The route was very different, was flat in its majority. When we went to the first climb thought it would be harder for us to work together but then again when we came back together I realised the challenge to the final kick.
“I think tomorrow will be interesting stage and quite kicky. I think it’s going to be all about positioning and the strongest will win.
“For the Tour so far, I think it’s been really fun, it has a lot of different terrains”.
Riccardo Zoidl: "We were smart to stay inside the group and managed to hold on for the final sprint. The goal was achieved and we to maintain the lead in the general classification.
“There's only one day left, in which we'll have to work smart again to win the Tour."
Bartosz Rudyk: “The stage was pretty good though really too hard for me, especially in the first and the last climbs.
“My team did an excellent job, I’m very proud of them. We fought for the win but still the second place is a good result for us. The points jersey is a big motivation for us for tomorrow’s stage and we will surely fight to defend it.
“Yesterday’s queen stage was very hard but personally I tried to save energy for today.
“As for the Tour so far, I must say I’m very impressed from what I have seen so far. The roads are good so is the whole organisation. I feel it’s nice to be here for sure!”
Anton Schiffer: “It wasn’t an easy stage, was too long almost 200km. It was not easy in the beginning but after that it was quite controlled.
“Of course, all the riders were affected more or less from yesterday’s exhausting stage. For me it was a big effort in the last climb and really felt fatigue there.
“But then I had a good quick recovery and today I felt normal again. I’m used to the stage racing so I think it was quite okay today.”
Tomas Pridal: “It was a super long stage for me. I had some bad luck on the first climb but when the things got tough my team did a super job and they helped me to skip and take a good position.
“The truth is we tried to save as much energy as possible. We did expect super hard pace on the first climb where we have been dropped. But then we went hard and tried to reach a good position.
“Now, I will do everything possible and I hope I will be able to maintain the white jersey tomorrow”.
