Oscar Onley climbed to a strong fourth place on the queen stage of the Giro Valle d’Aosta, pacing his effort in the latter stages well. Not far behind, Max Poole rode the final climb well from the chasing group to take eighth on the stage.

The 173.8 kilometre stage was always going to be a tough test with five classified climbs before the final mountain ascent to the line. Following a lot of attacks in the first half of the stage the race had broken up into several groups by mid stage in the mountains, with Lorenzo Milesi, Onley and Poole making the front splits.

Heading into the final 30 kilometres three riders had broken clear including the race leader and a teammate, both from FDJ, before Onley bridged over. Their lead floated between twenty and fourty seconds over the chasers including Poole before the two FDJ riders jumped clear at the foot of the final climb.

Behind it was a case of pacing to the top and Onley rode strongly to keep chasers at bay and finish fourth on the day.

Team DSM coach Boris Zimine commented on the stage: “The plan was quite clear today with Lorenzo riding to help Oscar and Max with positioning at the bottom of each climb and supporting with bottles. then from there both the guys were to follow the GC group.

“Oscar managed to get clear with three others and even though he was dropped on the downhill he kept fighting and finished fourth. Max also kept control of his pace and rode well to finish eighth and moves up the GC too. The guys have learnt well from one or two mistakes during the Baby Giro and are riding with more control here which is good to see.”

Oscar added: “We had two plans for today, firstly keep Max protected for the GC and also trying to go for the stage with myself. It kicked off with 35 kilometres to go and I went with the front guys but then had to ride my own pace and ended up fourth. Max rode really smart, always riding within himself to finish eighth and move up the GC. Overall it was a good day for us again and sets us up well for the last stage tomorrow.”