Andrea Bagioli claimed victory on Stage 4 of the Lidl Tour of Austria in Steyr, putting the finishing touch on a perfectly executed team performance. Bauke Mollema also successfully defended his third place in the overall standings.
Lidl-Trek delivered a textbook finale in Steyr. After 170 kilometers of racing, three of the team’s riders were still among the eleven-man lead group heading into the final three kilometers.
They had just come back from behind to catch a group of five leaders, who had attacked on the Porscheberg with six kilometers to go. And immediately Héctor Álvarez took control at the front to set a relentless pace, with Bagioli glued to his wheel. The move shut down any further attacks and left the rest of the group with no chance to come around the Spanish-Italian duo.
Inside the final kilometer, Mollema moved up in the eleven rider group to third position to keep Bagioli protected from behind. Entering the final corner, 350 meters from the line, the Dutchman forced the chasing riders onto the longer route, giving his teammate the perfect launchpad.
Álvarez then led the group through Steyr’s historic city gate and onto the cobbled finishing stretch, where Bagioli opened his sprint with a bit less than 300 meters to go. The Italian also benefited from the gap Mollema had created behind him, allowing him to power clear and take an emphatic victory by a bike length.
Mollema finished in sixth, Álvarez in ninth place.
The final stage on Sunday brings the peloton to Austria’s capital Vienna. There a sprint finish is expected and Lidl-Trek will try to win again and also secure Mollema’s podium.
In Bagioli’s words:
"It was pretty hard, also because of the heat, but today we really wanted to win. I was good already on the first stage and then second and third stage I took it easy to go all-in today. We worked super good as a team and I had a super lead-out from Hector and we also saved third place for Bauke in GC, so it was a really good day! I am already looking forward to tomorrow, everyone says it is easy, but it is only 100 kilometers so I think, for sure, some teams will try and do a hard race but we are ready and fight to win."
