Nicola Ruffoni took his second stage win in as many days Friday at the Tour of Croatia.
The Bardiani CSF rider sprinted to victory in Umag ahead of Riccardo Minali (Astana) and Ivan Savitskiy (Gazprom-Rusvelo), denying a stubborn break in the final moments of the day. Early escapee Alan Marangoni (Nippo-Vini Fantini) held out until the last 100 metres, but was caught and passed by the fast finishers just before the line.
In the battle for the overall title, Astana's Vinceno Nibali took over the leader's jersey as Caja Rural's Jaime Roson lost time on the stage.
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Marangoni, Johannes Schinnagel (Team Felbermayr - Simplon Wels), Daniel Turek (Israel Cycling Academy) and Antonio Di Sante (GM Europa Ovini) jumped clear of the peloton around 20 kilometres after the pack set out from Crikvenica for the 171km stage 4. The escapees were given a bit of space, with a gap growing out to around four minutes. With a flat finish on tap, however, several teams were interested in keeping the move under control to set up a potential sprint finish.
With Roson in the leader's jersey, Caja Rural did much of the early pace-setting to keep the gap to the break steady at or around four minutes for an hour or so.
With around 40 kilometres to go, the peloton began to eat into the breakers' advantage, with Trek-Segafredo, Bahrain-Merida, Bardiani CSF and Astana pitching in at the front. The four riders up the road worked well together, but the gap was down to two minutes with 25 kilometres left to race.
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