Miguel Lopez (Astana) was able to hold on the rest of the field, and take the stage victory on Stage 4 of the 2017 Tour of Austria by conquering the imposing climb up the Kitzbuheler Horn.
The 83 kilometer stage went out fast as the winner of two stages at this year's Tour of Austria Elia Viviana (Team Sky), along with Pim Lightart (Roompot-Nederlanse Loterij), Jose Diaz (Israel Cycling Academy), Jodok Salzmann (WSA-Greenlife), Patrick Bosman (Hrinkow Advarics), and Loic Chetout (Cofidis), broke away from the peloton early in the day.
55 kilometers into the race the six-man lead group held strong, but were riding only a minute in front of the peloton as the final climb loomed.
As the peloton reached the foot of the climb, Astana rider Ilnur Zakarin and Katusha-Alpecin's Rein Taramae raised the tempo. The six-man lead group began to break apart early in the climb, with five riders from the group being caught by the chase pack.
While Lightart, Diaz, Salzmann, Bosman, and Chetout could not keep their gap on the field, Miguel Lopez trusted his legs and continued to push the pace up the climb himself.
In the end Lopez was able to hold on to the finish line, with the Columbian rider summiting the Kitzbuheler Horn in first place and capturing a stage victory.
Stefan Denifl (Aqua Blue Sport) broke away from the main group on the Kitzbuheler Horn and finish the stage in second place, 17 seconds behind Lopez. Stage 4 proved to be a proud day for Denifl, as the Aqua Blue Sport rider was able to take over as the general classification leader, and will wear the yellow leaders jersey in his home country of Austria on Stage 5.
Rounding out the top five were Giulio Ciccone (Bardiani-CSF), Aleksey Rybalkin (Gazprom-RusVelo), and Delio Fernandez (Delko Marseille Provence), who finished 50 and 52 seconds behind Lopez, respectively, with Fernandez finishing less than a second behind Rybalkin.
Both Elia Viviani and Stephan Rabitsch will keep their classification leader jerseys, as Viviani will maintain his place atop the points classification, while Rabitsch still hold his lead in the mountains classification.
Assisted by Aleksey Rybalkin's strong stage performance, the Gazprom-RusVelo team will take over the lead in the team classification after Stage 4, while Team Dimension Data will move to second in the team classification, sitting 1:09 back of Gazprom-RusVelo in overall time.
Stage 5 will be a longer stage, which takes the peloton 212.5 kilometers through the mountains of central Austria from the town of Kitzbuhel to the village of Alpendorf.
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