'I realised, sh*t, I'm actually quite good at cycling' – the amazing journey of the surprise winner of Tour of the Alps stage 4

Lennart Jasch was the unexpected victor of a mountainous Tour of the Alps stage four, holding off a feisty group of favourites on his way to a memorable solo victory.

The German Tudor Pro Cycling rider's victory was especially surprising given that up until the end of 2023 he was a speed skater, not a cyclist, before switching from the ice to the road.

There was also no small amount of romance involved: the 25-year-old has ridden the Tour of the Alps once before, but on the same stage last year he bonked in terrible weather and retired. This time, it was rather different.

Jasch was part of an early breakaway on the 167.8km outing from Arco to Trento in northern Italy. They attacked on the first big climb of the day and survived until the late stages. He left his fellow escapees with 25km to the finish in Trento and held on to the end.

The GC riders finished together 20 seconds in arrears, and the top of the classification remained the same, with Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) retaining the green leader's jersey ahead of Thymen Arensman and Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers).

When it was pointed out to Jasch that he had won the race's Queen stage, he said: "I hadn't thought yet that it was the Queen stage. Now that you say it, it's true and yeah, I mean, I probably already said it a million times, but I still can't believe what happened today.

"I knew quite soon that I had really good legs today," he said. "And then I just tried to believe that I can make it. But yeah, it was so incredibly hard until the very, very end. So I never was really sure that I would really make it to the finish first. Just when I turned right on to the finishing straight, there was a moment I realised, f***, I just won my first pro [.Pro] race."

Beaming from ear to ear, Jasch explained that he had switched to cycling because of a skating injury. "Then I realised, sh*t, I'm actually quite good at cycling. At least from the watts." After joining Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe last season – his first pro team – his moved to Tudor Pro Cycling for 2026.

Asked where he could go from here he said: "There is a German saying, I will translate it – I don't know if it makes sense: 'even if you're old as a cow, you can still learn', and I think that's true for everyone. No matter how old you are, you can always learn something. When I just look back at how much I already learned in those two years, it's incredible. And yeah, it's probably almost impossible to say how much I still can learn. So I just think time will tell. Maybe we sit here in one year again, and it will tell another story."

Results

Tour of the Alps 2026, stage 4: Arco to Trento, 167.8km

1. Lennart Jasch (Ger) Tudor Pro Cycling, 167.8km in 4:28:06
2. Matteo Sobrero (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +10s
3. Federico Iacomoni (Ita) Team Ukyo, +11s
4. Florian Storck (Ger) Tudor Pro Cycling, +20s
5. Thymen Arensman (Ned) Ineos Grenadiers
6. Alexandr Vlasov (Rus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe
7. Tom Pidcock (Gbr) Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling
8. Jacob Omrzel (Slo) Bahrain Victorious
9. Embret Svedstad-Bårdseng (Nor) Ineos Grenadiers
10. Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos Grenadiers, all at same time

General Classification after stage 4

1. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, in 15:41:32
2. Thymen Arensman (Ned) Ineos Grenadiers, +4s
3. Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos Grenadiers, at s.t.
4. Alexandr Vlasov (Rus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +6s
5. Mattia Gaffuri (Ita) Picnic PostNL, +105
6. Mathys Rondel (Fra) Tudor Pro Cycling, +19s
7. Jacob Omrzel (Slov) Bahrain Victorious, +29s
8. Chris Harper (Aus) Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling
9. Alex Tolio (Ita) Bardiani CSF 7 Saber
10. Michael Storer (Aus) Tudor Pro Cycling, all at same time