Casper van Uden (Picnic PostNL) powered to an surprising victory on stage 4 of the Giro d’Italia, beating the likes of Mads Pedersen, Olav Kooij and Kaden Groves in a bunch kick in Lecce.
The victory was Van Uden’s first at WorldTour degree, and vastly important in his crew’s battle in opposition to relegation from biking’s high degree. The Dutchman, alongside along with his teammates, additionally wore a time trial helmet throughout the 189 kilometre stage, giving him an edge within the sprint for the road. Kooij took second behind his fellow countryman, with Maikel Zijlaard (Tudor Professional Biking) rounding out the rostrum.
“I didn’t do it alone, we did it with the entire crew,” Van Uden mentioned afterwards as he paid tribute to his teammates. “All of the boys and all of the employees did tremendous work. I didn’t must take any wind till round 200 metres to go, I knew I had a superb lengthy dash so I simply went for it and hoped for the perfect.
“We did a superb job for the entire season already with our leadouts, together with on the Tour of Turkey final week when the boys did an actual good job. I knew I simply needed to comply with Bram [Welten] and the boys and I’m actually comfortable I may give all of them one thing again.”
“I don’t suppose it was a shock [victory],” he added. “The boys all actually consider in me however typically I’ve to seek out that perception in myself a bit bit. I believe it will assist, and everybody from the crew did a extremely good job serving to me to consider in myself which paid off.”
Pedersen’s fourth-placed end meant that he saved maintain of the race chief’s pink jersey by seven seconds forward of Primož Roglič (Purple Bull-Bora-hansgrohe).
The way it occurred
Because the race moved again to Italy after the beginning in Albania, stage 4 was at all times set to be a transitional day for the peloton and one for the sprinters. A comparatively flat 189 kilometres of racing between Alberobello and Lecce had been on the menu.
A lot of the day was a comparatively subdued affair with only one rider, Fran Muñoz (Polti-VisitMalta), given licence to stand up the street in a one man breakaway and luxuriate in his second within the highlight in entrance of the Italian Tifosi and international tv cameras.
At one level, the lone chief’s time hole pushed out to greater than 4 minutes as a lot of the peloton seemed to maintain the tempo down forward of what was anticipated to be a frenetic finale. With simply over 50 kilometres full, a small crash in the principle area took out a number of riders. Race chief Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) was one of many riders affected, together with Picnic-PostNL’s Romain Bardet. Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) and Giulio Ciccone, Pedersen’s Lidl-Trek teammate had been additionally each reportedly introduced down within the incident.
With 56 kilometres left to race, it was throughout for Muñoz as he was reeled again in by the chasing pack, led by Visma-Lease a Bike and Trek as they began preparations for the inevitable dash end to return. Muñoz was caught on the second intermediate dash level through which Kooij took the utmost 12 factors on provide forward of Pedersen. As soon as the Spaniard was again within the bunch, the peloton seemed to get organised forward of coming into the ending circuit on the course throughout the ending city which got here with 24 kilometres of racing left.
One other crash occurred as soon as the riders had been into the ending circuit, taking out Soren Kragh Andersen (Lidl-Trek), a key leadout man for Pedersen, amongst others. Alpecin-Deceuninck and Ineos Grenadiers led the peloton into the ultimate lap with Josh Tarling expertly preserving Egan Bernal out of bother.
Going into the ultimate kilometre, Visma and Alpecin appeared to have the sting because the end appeared. Nevertheless it was to not be for both crew. Carrying time trial helmets, an uncommon tactic in a street stage, Picnic PostNL got here from nowhere to arrange Casper van Uden for a vastly important stage win for the Dutch squad.
Outcomes
Giro d’Italia stage 4: Alberobello > Lecce (189km)
1. Casper van Uden (Ned) Picnic PostNL, in 4:02:21
2. Olav Kooij (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike,
3. Maikel Zijlaard (Ned) Tudor Professional Biking,
4. Mads Pedersen (Den) Lidl-Trek,
5. Kaden Groves (Aus) Alpecin-Deceuninck,
6. Sam Bennett (Ire) Decathlon Ag”R La Mondiale,
7. Paul Magnier (Fra) Soudal Fast-Step,
8. Ben Turner (Gbr) Ineos Grenadiers,
9. Matteo Moschetti (Ita) Q36.5 Professional Biking,
10. Enrico Zanoncello (Ita) VF Group – Bardiani CSF – Faizane, all identical time
Normal classification after stage 4
1. Mads Pedersen (Den) Lidl-Trek, in 11:44:31
2. Primož Roglič (Slo) Purple Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, +9s
3. Mathias Vacek (Cze) Lidl-Trek, +14s
4. Brandon McNulty (USA) UAE Group Emirates-XRG, +21s
5. Isaac Del Toro (Mex) UAE Group Emirates-XRG, +22s
6. Juan Ayuso (Spa) UAE Group Emirates-XRG, +25s
7. Max Poole (GBr) Picnic PostNL, +33s
8. Antonio Tiberi (Ita) Bahrain-Victorious, +34s
9. Michael Storer (Aus) Tudor Professional Biking Group, +36s
10. Guido Pellizzari (Ita) Purple Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, +40s
