Awesome Alexey Lutsenko defies UAE Team Emirates' numbers game to take stunning summit win on stage 4 at the Giro d'Abruzzo

Alexey Lutsenko has taken a stunning victory on the summit finish of stage 4 at the 2024 Giro d'Abruzzo, defying the numbers game of UAE Team Emirates.

With an initial group of five riders going clear to start the day, by the time the final climb to the line at Prati di Tivo began, no attackers remained out front of a peloton curiously led by Astana Qazaqstan Team, rather than the UAE Team Emirates of race leader Jan Christen.

So high was the pace being set by the men in blue that as the climb began, the peloton had been absolutely decimated, with only UAE retaining considerable numbers in the group.

Making their numbers count, UAE soon took control of the bunch, dwindling the numbers around them even further.

Sadly for the 19-year-old race leader, Christen couldn't match the pace of his teammates and shortly after the Swiss was dropped from the lead group, Pavel Sivakov attacked clear. After Alexey Lutsenko bridged the gap though, Adam Yates than countered with a one-two.

Into the last kilometre, Yates and Lutsenko had been joined by Diego Ulissi with Sivakov just behind, leaving the Kazakh champion completely outnumbered.

In the sprint for the line, it was Lutsenko who powered to an impressive victory ahead of Ulissi and Yates, moving into the overall race lead.