Stage 4 of the Tour of Hellas was a grueling 181 km journey from Atalanti to the summit of Parnitha, defined by climbing. The team’s tactical aim was to place Zétény Szijártó or Zsombi in the early move, and Zétény delivered, sparking the second attack of the day to form what eventually became a strong 9-man breakaway. Their lead ballooned to over 6 minutes, and they cooperated well through a landscape.
The final climb of the day proved to be the ultimate judge. While Zétény was caught midway up the ascent after his long day out front, our climbers Michal Schuran and Veljko Stojnić moved into support positions for Tomáš Přidal. Even Nikiforos Arvanitou, who was meant to be recovering for tomorrow’s sprint, chipped in to help. Despite the team’s best efforts, Tomáš struggled to find his rhythm on the steep ramps and eventually lost contact with the leaders 3 km from the top, finishing 19th and conceding 3 minutes. Up ahead, Lorenzo Masciarelli (MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort) took a solo victory, while the GC was reshuffled ahead of the final stage.
Tomáš’s humble apology
Honestly, I don’t know what to say. I simply had a bad day today: definitely my worst of the year. I knew from the start that something was wrong, which became even more evident on the last climb where I couldn’t even stay in the draft and got dropped.
I want to apologize to the team, who took such great care of me, not just today but over the last few days. I’m disappointed that I couldn’t repay their hard work with a result. However, tomorrow is a new day, and I will do my best to help Niki win in his hometown. After that, it’s only two days until the start of the Tour de Hongrie. The first two stages should end in a sprint, and my goal will be to help Niki with his positioning there.
Zétény’s day in the sun
It wasn’t hard to get into the breakaway today: I started the second attack, which five of us went with, and a few kilometers later we got the info that four more were coming after us. So we ended up being nine, which is a serious number for a breakaway.
We kept moving, but the pace wasn’t extreme anywhere. The gap was relatively large, it went over six minutes. You could feel that everyone was a bit tired: yesterday was quite a brutal day. The beginning of the break didn’t feel good for me either 🙂
It wasn’t a very exciting day, we passed through few settlements, so we just rotated in quite good harmony. At the end, I was still able to help Pridal a little towards the middle of the hill, where I was finally caught (there wasn’t much left in me by then), so with that, I fulfilled my daily task. Unfortunately, Tour de Hongrie is out for me this year, and I don’t know my further racing program yet.
