Tirreno-Adriatico: Tadej Pogačar secures trident trophy as Phil Bauhaus sprints to final-stage victory

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Emirates) successfully retained his Tirreno-Adriatico title and continued his 100 percent record for the season on Sunday.

Pogačar finished safe in the bunch to defend his overnight GC lead and complete a sweep of victories at every race he started in 2022 after amassing victories at the UAE Tour and Strade Bianche in the past month.

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) finished second overall, Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Victorious) third.

“I am super happy,” Pogačar said after securing his crushing 1:52 GC win. “Any race that I can win we are happy, it’s now the second time to win Tirreno. I wouldn’t say I am unbeatable, but so far so good. We will see in the next races and some new challenges.”

Stage honors went to Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorious), who proved fastest in a hectic bunch sprint in San Benedetto del Tronto.

In a blanket finish, barely a bike-length separated Giacomo Nizzolo (Israel-Premier Tech) in second, Kaden Groves (BikeExchange-Jayco) in third, and Davide Cimolai (Cofidis) in fourth.

Nizzolo’s Israel-Premier Tech team won the battle heading into the pinch-point under the flamme rouge, meaning Nizzolo was best placed to follow Alexander Kristoff’s wheel when the Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert-Materiaux rider started the sprint.

But behind him, Bauhaus swung over across to the right-hand-side of the road to just edge the win.

“I feel amazing. We always believe that I can win. I had a difficult winter, but I knew that I was in good shape. The team did really good today,” Bauhaus said.

“We knew it was a headwind, so the plan was to come late. Jan [Tratnik], Jasha [Sutterlin] and Heino [Haussler] did amazing to bring me in a good position. Heino positioned me in the last narrowing before the left-right corner. Then I followed [FDJ rider Arnaud] Démare, then I saw the gap on the right-hand side and I just went for it.”

The German also reflected on how it was one of the biggest wins of his career.

“I said this morning to the guys that it would be really nice on my palmarès, a win like this. After the Dauphine [in 2017] and the Tour of Poland [in 2021], it’s really nice.”

In what was a messy sprint, many of the pre-stage favorites couldn’t get in the mix, with Mark Cavendish (QuickStep-Alpha Vinyl) and Tim Merlier (Alpecin-Fenix) caught adrift, while Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) was squeezed out by the barriers.

With a dead flat finishing circuit in San Benedetto del Tronto, which the riders completed four laps of, this stage was always likely to finish in a sprint, and the three-man break of Jorge Arcas (Movistar), Manuele Boaro (Astana Qazaqstan) and Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani-CSF-Faizane) were kept in check.

Aside from one crash early on, in which Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost) broke his collarbone and had to abandon, much of the day passed without incident.

There was another crash just prior to the final lap in which Robert Stannard (Alpecin-Fenix), Taco van der Hoorn and one of his Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert-Materiaux teammates went down, but they appeared unhurt.

The catch was made 8km from the finish, after which the sprinters’ teams began finalizing their lead-outs.