2023-05-09 15:40:00
“Taking the pink jersey is very special for me. I was going for a stage win, but I also knew that the pink jersey was possible. When I attacked, I threw everything in to lose him (Paret-Peintre). That’s me initially succeeded, but he came back on the descent,” said the Norwegian at the finish.
“My legs hurt so badly. But to have the pink jersey now is just incredibly nice.”
Evenepoel and his team Soudal – Quick-Step had not defended the overall lead with the utmost vehemence during the stage.
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They kept the distance to the top within limits and some of his helpers still had to work hard, but in the end the Belgian was also satisfied to hand over the responsibility of the Maglia Rosa to DSM for a few days and to be able to rest his helpers more.
Strong Finishing Paret-Peintre – Beaten Leknessund brings Rosa
Evenepoel is 28 seconds back on Leknessund now second overall, with Paret-Peintre third, 30 seconds back. They are followed by Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates / + 1:00), Primoz Roglic (Jumbo – Visma / + 1:12) and Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers / + 1:26).
While Paret-Peintre celebrated the stage win and Leknessund celebrated Rosa, the Frenchman Thibaut Pinot (Groupama – FDJ) narrowly retained the lead in the mountains classification and thus the Maglia Azzurra. The points classification and the Maglia Ciclamino still belong to Jonathan Milan (Bahrain Victorious) and the white jersey for the best young rider took over, as did Rosa Leknessund.
From the beginning, the 4th stage was an extremely unpleasant section: With the onset of rain and constantly up and down terrain, the pace was immediately very high and initially no leading group was able to pull away.
After almost 40 kilometers, however, there was a gap in the field on a descent, behind which the UAE captains Joao Almeida and Jay Vine found themselves. However, their team got them back on track regarding ten kilometers later at the foot of the next climb.
At the Passo delle Crocelle, Pinot secured the first mountain prize in the 2nd category following 65 kilometers and initially extended his lead in the battle for the blue jersey. In the long descent that followed, however, a breakaway septet around Andreas Leknessund from Team DSM, which had been constantly attacking until then, and the French Aurelien Paret-Peintre (AG2R – Citroen) and Gebreigzabhier finally pulled away.
Since the peloton completely slowed down in the valley, the group quickly had a lead of four and a half minutes. After 110 kilometers on Monte Carruozzo, Ghebreigzabhier won the second category 2 mountain prize and edged Pinot in the battle for blue.
Ghebreigzabhier misses mountain jersey by four points
The Evenepoel team controlled the gap in the peloton and let it grow to almost six minutes with 30 kilometers to go. Only then did other teams take part in the tracking work and at the foot of the final climb in the direction of Lago Laceno, Leknessund and Co. had a lead of just 4:20 minutes with ten kilometers to go.
With seven kilometers to go, Nicola Conci (Alpecin – Deceuninck) opened the attack in the leading group when the peloton was only 3:30 minutes behind. He was countered shortly followingwards by Toms Skujins (Trek – Segafredo), but both were caught once more.
At the 5 km mark, only Leknessund, Ghebreigzabhier and Paret-Peintre remained in front and shortly followingwards the Eritrean had to give up too, dropping to fifth place in the mountains classification and therefore just missing out on Pinot’s mountain jersey.
Meanwhile, Leknessund and Paret-Peintre dueled for the day’s victory on the flat final three kilometers at Lago Laceno. Leknessund led the duo into the home straight and, although they had no chance in the sprint duel with the Frenchman, ensured that the lead was enough to take the pink jersey from Evenepoel.
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