photo credits @ WTFK
Aurelien Paret-Peintre (AG2R Citroen) held his nerve to clinch a stunning victory in stage 4 of the Giro d’Italia today, after the French rider and Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM) rode clear late in the stage.
Some heavy rain during a number of descents made for some treacherous riding, causing a number of crashes with Steve Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) among those to hit the ground, but thankfully, he was able to still continue.
Meanwhile, the arrival into Lago Laceno saw a wonderful reception from the locals, with Ineos Grenadiers upping the pace with 5 kilometers, as race leader Remo Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) became isolated before Paret-Peintre and Leknessund powered clear, with the latter taking over as the leader in the general classification.
Race Highlights
Paret-Peintre and Leknessund emerged from the seven-rider breakaway on the climb to Lago Laceno, with the AG2R Citroën rider stronger in the sprint after Leknessund gave his all in the hope of taking the race lead.
In the meantime, Evenepoel and the other overall contenders finished 2:01 behind Paret-Peintre and Leknessund. It came down to a handful of seconds and a six-second time bonus for second place on the stage, so Leknessund was awarded the pink jersey.
Evenepoel is now second overall at 28 seconds, with Paret-Peintre third at 30 seconds.
Earlier action saw the breakaway group reach the Molella summit with 4:20 advantage, putting Tom Skujins (Trek-Segafredo), Vinceno Albanese (Eolo-Kometa), Paret-Peintre, Nikola Conci (Alpecin Deceuninck), and Leknessund into the frame for a pink jersey after they all started the day less than five minutes back on GC.
Ineos Grenadiers and Bora-Hansgrohe didn’t play per Evenepoel’s script and set the pace in the peloton, cutting into the leaders’ gap and putting Quick-Step under the hammer.
Leknessund dug deep with an attack at 4 kilometers remaining, but couldn’t drop his last remaining breakaway rival Paret-Peintre.
From there, the duo rolled through to the final sprint, with the Norwegian forced to lead out the sprint, only to be overhauled by his French rival.
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