18/04/2024

Sensational Simon Carr seals stunning Tour of the Alps stage win with 45km solo

Simon Carr has sealed victory on stage 4 of the 2024 Tour of the Alps with a sensational effort, having attacked solo with 45km still to go on an incredibly mountainous day.

After the horrific day weather-wise yesterday on stage 3, the peloton was thankfully greeted with dry roads for stage 4. Not so welcome for some however, would've been the incredibly mountainous route of the day. Getting themselves into the breakaway, a strong group including Hugh Carthy, Oscar Rodriguez, Simon Carr, Sergio Higuita, Lucas Hamilton and the King of the Mountains leader, Mattia Bais.

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Proving themselves strongest of the break, Carr and Higuita attacked clear over the top of the first categorised climb. On the next climb, Carr attacked again and this time, Higuita could not match him, with the EF Education-EasyPost rider moving clear solo.

Around two minutes down the road, the attacks were also coming, first through Chris Harper and then Ben O'Connor with INEOS Grenadiers duo Tobias Foss and Geraint Thomas notably casualties following the acceleration. Although race leader, Juan Pedro Lopez was able to respond to the first few attacks, when Wout Poels went the Bahrain - Victorious rider soon got a gap.

Thankfully for Lopez however, O'Connor also didn't want to see Poels break free and by the top of the climb the group was back together. Although the acceleration and attacks had reeled in Higuita, Carr remained out ahead over the summit.

In a dramatic moment on the descent, Chris Harper and Ben O'Connor both crashed having gone on the attack, Harper in particular looked hurt, impacting hard with a street light on the roadside. Although O'Connor was able to quickly remount and get back racing, Harper was sadly taken off the race for a trip to hospital. Understandably, following such an incident, much of the impetus went out of the chase afterwards, with Carr extending his lead back up to over two minutes with 15km and an uncategorised climb still to come.

Valentin Paret-Peintre didn't want to slow up too much, attacking from that group, quickly managing to build a considerable lead as the cagey riding behind continued. So lacking was the chase behind, that soon the Frenchman had moved into the virtual race lead.

Over the top of the final climb, Carr's victory was assured. Behind the Brit, Paret-Peintre had finally been caught but just he, Lopez, Poels, Romain Bardet, Michael Storer and Antonio Tiberi remained in the group of GC favourites.