The French Aurélien Paret-Peintre (AG2R Citroën Team) won the fourth stage of the 106th Giro d’Italia from Venosa to Lago Laceno, a 175-kilometre stage characterized by continuous ups and downs. Behind the transalpine came the Norwegian Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM), separated by 2″ in the sprint, followed by the duo made up of the Latvian Tom Skujins (Trek Segafredo) and the Italian Vincenzo Albanese (EOLO Kometa), who reached the finish line with a delay of 57”.
The Viking, with today’s place of honor, conquered the pink jersey, thus becoming the second Norwegian in history, after Knut Knudsen in 1981, to wear the symbol of supremacy. Tomorrow the Scandinavian will start from Atripalda with a 28” advantage over world champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick Step) with today’s winner, Paret-Peintre, who has moved up to third position at half a minute away. On the blue front, Albanese, 11th at 1’39, becomes the best-placed Italian in the standings, closely followed by Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious), now 13th at 1’59”.
The stage followed a discounted script. At the beginning, it was characterized by a dizzying pace that didn’t allow the birth of the long-awaited escape of the day. Finally, after 70 kilometres, on the descent of Passo delle Crocelle, after Thibaut Pinot (Groupama FDJ), passing first to the summit, had consolidated his blue jersey as leader of the climbers, an action of seven riders took shape: the Norwegian Andreas Leknessund, the French Aurélien Paret-Peintre and Warren Barguil (Team Arkéa Samsic), the Italians Vincenzo Albanese and Nicola Conci (Alpecin-Deceuninck), the Eritrean Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier and the Latvian Tom Skujins (Trek – Segafredo).
To Evenepoel, all this didn’t seem true: his desire to get rid of the pink jersey materialized. Such was the Fleming’s disinterest in the attack brought on him that, with less than 30 from the finish line, the advantage of the fugitives reached the considerable margin of 5’48. At this point, the Soudal Quick Step gave an initial acceleration which allowed the platoon to recover one minute. However, the price paid for this effort was very high: at the beginning of the last asperity of the day, Colle Molella 10,000 meters from the finish line, Remco found himself isolated, surrounded by his opponents all accompanied by their faithful squires.
In the last ascent there was a paradox: the Ineos Grenadiers towed the group of the best with such vehemence as to question the loss of the pink jersey by the Flemish millennial. The perverse plan of the British battleship exposed the deficiencies already mentioned several times, in the great stage races, of the Wolfpack. Meanwhile, up front, the seven fugitives gave life to the traditional cycling version of Agatha Christie’s 10 Little Indians. One after the other, in order, Barguil, Conci, Albanese, Ghebreigzabhier and Skujins gave way. As per the unwritten cycling tradition, the division of the cake followed with Leknessund, satisfied with the conquest of the pink jersey, who pulled the sprint to Paret-Peintre. The best group reached 2’01”.
Tomorrow the fifth fraction will be staged. From Atripalda to Salerno the runners will be expected to cover 171 kilometres, not without difficulties in the first part of the route. However, once Guardia Lombardi has been passed, at least 100 from the finish, the route will be almost entirely downhill, which, in reality, could complicate life for the group quite a bit. In fact, the weather forecast for tomorrow speaks of incessant rain that shouldn’t give a break to the race. Will the cyclists agree to a de facto peaceful neutralization or will they battle it out as if they were competing in a freezing northern classic? The important thing is that nobody gets hurt.
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