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With a late climb shaping today’s stage, the real lesson for everyday riders is how to manage effort when the road turns uphill after hours in the saddle. In today’s breakdown, Trevor looks at the pacing decisions riders make in these moments, as well as the value of smart positioning and being familiar with the terrain ahead. The benefit for riders at home is learning how to approach late-race climbs more efficiently, conserve energy where it matters, and give themselves a better chance of getting over the top feeling strong.
Today, Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek got into the early breakaway and paced the late climbs to perfection, staying with the climbers and winning the stage from a 10-rider group.
Stage 4 Podium
1. Mads Pedersen
2. Quinn Simmons
3. Raul Garcia
GC After Stage 4
1. Torstein Træen
2. Quinn Sean +28
3. Mathias Vacek +3:50
4. Tadej Pogacar +7:53
5. Jonas Vingegaard +7:53
Trevor Raab is the senior photographer for Runner’s World and Bicycling, a dedicated cyclocross racer, and, occasionally, a product reviewer for the Test Team. He fits the typical “how I got into bikes” story: his dad introduced him to mountain bikes when he was a kid, then found skateboarding in the middle, worked as a bike shop mechanic, and now he’s riding or racing every sort of bike he can find.