Roche fares best of Irish on seven-hour mountain stage in Italy; Bennett still standing

Sam Bennett got through more than seven hours in the mountains in Italy today as Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche (see together above) build form and ready for battle for race lead tomorrow, Sunday.

With Nicolas Roche and Dan Martin riding Tirreno-Adriatico in Italy this week in search of form and in support of their team leaders and Sam Bennett looking to see what he could do in the sprints, today's stage 4 brought mixed results for the Irish trio.

Roche will be happiest this evening having climbed quite well for a man who lost 10 weeks of winter training to a knee injury. His Tinkoff-Saxo team mate Alberto Contador also took the stage win, with another of the squad's riders Roman Kreuziger putting in a fantastic performance.

The Czech strongman animated the finale and still had the legs to take 4th on the stage and moves to sixth overall, just 39 seconds down on leader Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick-Step).

Contador is now breathing down the neck of the in-form Pole, now in 2nd place just 16 seconds off the leader's jersey, a factor that will see an all out assault by Tinkoff-Saxo on the lead over the remaining three stages, where Roche will be called on to earn his corn.

The Irish man came home in 35th spot day, some 2:29 down on his stage winning team mate, losing that time as the peloton was whittled down to a select group on the final climb.

Roche stayed with the group just inside the 5km marker but lost out when Kreuziger and then Contador did much of the damage chasing the stage win and race lead.

While the Tinkoff-Saxo camp is a reasonably happy one tonight, there will be fewer jokes inside Dan Martin's Garmin-Sharp squad. He told stickybottle last week that his first race of the year would be ridden in support of Andrew Talansky.

However, the American last some 34 seconds to the stage winner today. He faltered when the climbers, including second on the stage Nairo Quintana (Movistar), went at each other and now sits in 23rd sport, 1:39 off the lead.

Today, in his first climbing test of the year, Martin lost 8:14 in 46th place. However, he will not be troubled by that as he is building form this week towards his main goal of the season in the shape of the Giro d'Italia where he will inevitably be the one turning the screw when the road goes up.

Having finished 4th in the bunch sprint that settled Thursday's stage 2, NetApp-Endura's Irish neo pro Sam Bennett was in survival mode today on what is the race's only mountain summit finish stage.

He did what he had to, getting through the day just behind a large group of riders all also bent on survival and losing 32:02. That brought his time in the saddle to 7hrs and 12 mins, on what was mammoth 244km mountain stage.

Tomorrow is another mountain stage on which Bennett will again be looking to get through before a flatter stage on Monday. Survival tomorrow and any kind of a result on Monday would be huge for the 23-year-old.

Roche and Martin on the other hand will be looking to make their presence felt in the mountains tomorrow in support of their team leader's for this race before they enjoy protected rider status a little further down the road in the weeks ahead.

March 12^th-18^th: Tirreno-Adriatico (WorldTour)

March 15, Stage 4: Indicatore to Cittareale (244km)

1	Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo	6:39:56
2	Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas (Col) Movistar   Team	1sec
3	Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Team Katusha	5
4	Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Tinkoff-Saxo
5	Richie Porte (Aus) Team Sky
6	Michele Scarponi (Ita) Astana Pro Team	8
7	Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Omega Pharma -   Quick-Step Cycling Team	10
8	Robert Kiserlovski (Cro) Trek Factory Racing	11
9	Christopher Horner (USA) Lampre-Merida
10	Giampaolo Caruso (Ita) Team Katusha	17
11	Bart De Clercq (Bel) Lotto Belisol
12	Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale
13	Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre-Merida	25
14	Moreno Moser (Ita) Cannondale
15	Julian David Arredondo Moreno (Col) Trek Factory   Racing
16	Andrew Talansky (USA) Garmin Sharp
17	Ben Hermans (Bel) BMC Racing Team
18	Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
19	Mikel Nieve Ituralde (Spa) Team Sky
20	Bauke Mollema (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team	34
35	Nicolas Roche (Irl) Tinkoff-Saxo	2:29
46	Daniel Martin (Irl) Garmin Sharp	Related News Lara Gillespie attacks Dolomite stage as Giro hits high mountains Video - Ireland's Meehan climbs with best on brutal Alpine terrain 8:14
161	Sam Bennett (Irl) Team NetApp - Endura	32:03

General Classification