Tour of the Alps 2024 – Stage 5 [LAST 10 KM]

April 19, 2024

Tour of the Alps 2024 🇮🇹 – Stage 5 – Levico Terme – Levico Terme : 118,6 km

Formerly known as the Giro del Trentino, the Tour of the Alps is a multi-day stage-race that offers the climbers a chance to hone their race-winning form ahead of the upcoming Giro d’Italia. The race takes place over two regions, Tyrol-South and Tyrol-Trentino, both of which straddle the Italian-Austrian border. As its name suggests, the race is held almost entirely within the Alps and is thus a paradise for the pure climbers. The race returned with a two-day format but has since increased this to four and five days in more recent decades. Until its rebranding to the Tour of the Alps in 2017, the race often started with a team time trial. Instead the race now opts for a short road stage with a series of punchy, low altitude climbs to kick off the race before it sends the riders into the high mountains for the latter stages.

Aurélien Paret-Peintre scored Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale’s 10th victory of 2024 on the final stage of the Tour of the Alps, a short but challenging mountainous day around Levico Terme. The Frenchman triumphed from a greatly reduced lead group to beat Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) and brother Valentin Paret-Peintre to the win in the uphill sprint finish.

Juan Pedro López (Lidl-Trek) secured the overall race victory, his first career GC success, as no real threats to his comfortable lead materialised over the stage, which saw the riders tackle two ascents of Palù del Fersina.

The Spaniard won the race by 38 seconds from another Decathlon AG2R man, Ben O’Connor, while Tiberi rounded out the podium in third at 42 seconds.

A lead group of 15 came to the finish after 119km of racing over two first-category ascents of the Palù del Fersina (12.5km at 6.1%) with Bahrain Victorious leading it out on the uphill run in the final kilometre of the day.

It was Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious) who launched the final dash to the line a long way out, with Aurélien Paret-Peintre biding his time on the wheel before striking out himself with a perfect sense of timing.

He burst clear to cross the line first unopposed, while further back Tiberi outpaced Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) for second place before Valentin Paret-Peintre burst past late on to beat his fellow Frenchman to grab third.

“It’s a perfect way to finish the week with the team,” Aurélien Paret-Peintre said after the stage. “I’m super happy with my win. In the last kilometre I knew I was the fastest in the group so it’s perfect way to end for us and also in the GC with Ben.

“We’ve been working at an altitude camp ahead of the Giro d’Italia. Our goal Is the Giro, so this week was to finish the preparation for that and now we go to the Giro with ambition.”

Overall winner López rounded out the five-stage race in ninth place, safe among the group. He was active late in the day, going on the attack along with Bardet, Tiberi and O’Connor over a small hill 7km from the line. However, the move was brought back in good time for the finish, setting up the closing sprint.

“This is my first victory,” López said after the finish. “It’s the [most] important one of my life, so I’m really happy. The team did a really amazing job from the beginning to the end.

“This victory is amazing for me. I think of a lot of people, including family, friends, my team, and Luca Guercilena the team manager because everybody knows that he’s not in a good situation, so this is also for him.”

Results :

Final General Classification :