Archie Ryan takes his first win in EF Education-EasyPost jersey at Coppi e Bartali: "I knew I had it when I looked back at the final corner"

Archie Ryan took his first win in new jersey today on stage 4 of Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali, narrowly holding off a charging peloton. The 22-year-old attacked with six kilometers to go and managed to narrowly to keep the distance from approaching group of favourites.

"I thought the gap was big enough so I thought I could get the win but I didn’t know how fast the peloton was going," Ryan said. "I knew I had it when I looked back at the final corner and there was still a decent gap. I thought, 'If I don’t lock up, I’ve got this.'"

"The guys all did a great job. Jardi looked after him all day, keeping the boys out of the wind and Lukas controlled the break at the start and then positioned Archie. Lukas did a fantastic ride actually, positioning Archie into the final climb and then he stayed in the group and then still finished fourth on the stage, which was great to see," sports director  Tom Southam said.

Ryan knew that he wanted to reward his teammates’ efforts with the win. "Cepeda ripped it that last time on the climb and I went after and Lukas finished off strong so happy days! It’s a top performance for us young guys in the race," he concluded.