25-year-old Adrien Maire of Unibet Tietema Rockets won the Queen Stage of the ΔΕΗ Tour of Hellas 2025, from Chalkida to the Olympic Village, after a five-men battle in the final straight.
It was a mostly sunny, dream day for Unibet Tietema Rockets, as Giovanni Carboni took possession of the red KoM jersey as well.
At the end of the day, however, the jersey that everyone was going for was held by Martin Lopez thanks to the XDS Astana’s tactics and with the valuable help of his teammate Diego Ulissi.
Lopez crossed the finish line on Ioannis Melissanidis Street in third place, behind Maire and Ulissi, but maintained a comfortable 21-second lead ahead of Sunday's final stage in Attica, which will start from Marathon at 10:30 p.m. and will conclude in Syntagma Square.
The race
The Queen Stage, fourth of this year’s ΔΕΗ Tour of Hellas, started with mild weather at the Nea Artaki harbour and multiple attacks. Italian Giovanni Carboni (Unibet Tietema Rockets) chose the difficult path to climbe the, occasionally foggy, Dirfy Mountain all alone. Behind him, XDS Astana looked like they sought to control the pace of the peloton and collect as many points as possible in the two hard (cat. 1) KOMs.
Carboni managed to pick up 2X15 points, which he desperately wanted, in Portitses at an altitude of 963 m. and in Stropones at 1,016 meters. The other two contenders of the red jersey, as well as the cyan jersey, Lucas Plapp (Jayco AlUla) and Martin Lopez of XDS Astana, snatched eight and ten (4+6) points respectively from the first two climbs.
With the terrain gradually becoming flat, a group of riders, consisting mainly of the contenders for victory, was formed, as well as two chase groups, the second with Plapp among them. Tour’s leader Lopez along with his teammate, Diego Ulissi, were second and first respectively in the intermediate sprint, right before the new Chalkida bridge and gained valuable bonus seconds for the general classification.
Before reaching Avlonas, the first chase group caught up with the leaders and a new group of eleven riders took control of the race. These were, last year’s winner Riccardo Zoidl of Hrinkow Advarics, Ulissi and Lopez of XDS Astana, Anton Schiffer of BIKE AID, Sjoerd Bax, Marcel Camprubi and Van Houcke of Q36.5, Jannis Peter and Colin Stussi of Voralberg and Adrien Maire and Carboni of Unibet Tietema Rockets. What was clearly missing was a Jayco AlUla rider!
With the surface becoming steeply uphill towards the third KoM (category 2) on Agios Mercurios, new attacks began, with Schiffer setting the pace. The 10 points up for grabs were grabbed by Schiffer, with Lopez following and Carboni winning a valuable point and 31 in total, a sum that kept him four points ahead of Lopez in the battle for the red jersey.
The last kilometres were pure downhill and on a sharp right-hand bend, Schiffer lost control, briefly went off the road and left Lopez leading all alone. Schiffer along with Ulissi and Maire and later on Carboni, formed the chase group. Before reaching Varympompi, those five became one team, the one that would vie for the stage victory.
In front of the enthusiastic audience in the Olympic Village, Maire proved to be the stronger and gave Unibet Tietema Rockets the stage victory. Lopez retained the cyan jersey and stayed 21 seconds ahead of second-placed Schiffer, while Carboni took possession of the red jersey. The points jersey will be worn in tomorrow's (6/4) final stage by second in the standings (behind Lopez), Ulissi, while the white jersey of the best U23 rider passed into the hands of Tomas Pridal of Elkov-Kasper.
Quotes
Andrien Maire: "I'm so happy to achieve my first pro win and it was so nice to have Gio (Carboni) with me at the end. Really super performance from the team during the whole stage. It was perfect day today, I really enjoy it riding here in Greece.
"I prefer the weather to be like that. I was a little bit afraid in the morning, but it was a perfect day with the perfect temperature".
Martin Lopez: "It was a hard stage. In the beginning the climb was so hard, but my team controlled the first two climbs. After that, we had more or less 80 km of flat surface and with the help of Diego (Ulissi) was easier. In the last climb I felt very good, I have a big attack, and in the final straight I helped my teammate Diego, who was second, so I'm very happy for that".
Giovanni Carboni: "Today it was an incredible stage. We attacked from the start, and yes, I'm so happy about the KoM jersey and I'm glad also for my teammate Adrien for his great win.
“I think that the whole stage was good. We were unlucky with the weather yesterday, but I think today was a very good stage. I was unlucky in the second stage as well, because I crashed in the last climb in the slippery road. Today I tried my best and of course I'm happy with the result".
Tomas Pridal: "To be honest it was maybe one of the hardest stages for me, but I'm happy to be here again. I won the white jersey, so I'm very happy for me and my team".
