Archie Ryan wins stage four at Coppi Bartali

With six kilometers to go, the neo-pro attacked and though he managed to open a small gap, the peloton soon caught him. Undeterred, Archie attacked again just over a kilometer later on the final climb of the day. This time, he made it stick.

Tom Southam, sport director, explained that Archie and the squad executed the day’s plan perfectly.

“We knew the place for him to go was the hardest part of the race,” Southam said. “But what we needed to happen was for the race to be hard enough to make it really selective beforehand. And fortunately, it panned out that way because we couldn't really influence it with just four riders. It panned out to be a really hard day which meant that when Archie went, he was obviously going to be harder to catch because then it's a real question of legs instead of tactics.”

With each pedal stroke, Archie knew he was going to earn the win.

“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,” Archie 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 entire squad played a role in Archie’s win.

“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,” Southam said.

Archie 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 said.

Archie is currently the best young rider and sits in second place on the overall classification by nine seconds with one stage to go.

“They’re doing well,” Southam said. “The sun’s out. The food’s good. They’ve got confidence because they’re performing well. They’re racing hard and they’re doing really well. It’s nice to see.”