Team Sky's Chris Froome won the fourth stage of the Tirreno Adriatico this afternoon with a superb ride.
Four men in Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana), Anthony Roux (FDJ), Tomasz Marczynski (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Francesco Failli (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia) had got away on the 173km stage from Narni to Prati di Tivo, where there had been two small earthquakes this morning.
A six minute lead after 90kms was the fortune of the escapers whilst race leader Mark Cavendish had been dropped by the peloton.
By the time, the quartet reached the foot of the Prati di Tivo, we had had four hours of racing and average speeds of 49kmph.
With ten to go, only Marczynski was still in front with a minute to play with. Team Sky put the hammer down and two kilometres later, the peloton was all back together.
Alberto Contador picked up the time bonus from the sprint with 5.9kms to go. The Spaniard attacked three kilometres later but Chris Froome who was being assisted by Henao and Uran was biding his time.
Then with 700ms to go, Froome shot away and neither Contador or Nibali could get near him and he won the stage in a time of 4.41.31, some six seconds ahead of Mauro Santambrogio and Nibali.
Omega Pharma Quick Step's Michal Kwiatkowsk finished fourth which was enough to give him the Maglia Azzuria going by four seconds from Froome into the final stage.