Andreas Leknessund is overcome by emotion after discovering he had done enough to take the pink jersey. Andreas Leknessund seized the leader’s pink jersey from Remco Evenepoel but was pipped to the stage victory by Aurelién Paret-Peintre after a dramatic fourth stage.
After an action-packed start on Tuesday, a seven-man group engineered a breakaway at the 79km mark and gradually built a lead which was over five minutes at one point of the 175km ride from Venosa to Lago Laceno in southern Italy.
The stage profile mixed hill climbs with three category 2 mountain climbs, allowing the breakaway to stay clear. On the final ascent, the Colle Molella, the leading duo of Paret-Peintre (AG2R-Citroën) and Leknessund (Team DSM) pulled clear of the other breakaway contenders, including Toms Skujins and Vincenzo Albanese. Aurélien Paret-Peintre crosses the line in front of Andreas Leknessund. Paret-Peintre stayed on his rival’s wheel on the final descent before overtaking in the final metres to claim a stage win. Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) finished two minutes behind, giving Leknessund the overall lead by 28 seconds, with Paret-Peintre two seconds further back.
The 23-year-old Norwegian was overcome with emotion when he realised he had overtaken Evenepoel as the overall race leader. Skujins (Trek-Segafredo) was third on the day, 57 seconds behind the leading pair, with Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) bringing home the main group of general classification contenders.
“I came to the Giro with the aim of contesting stage victories. It was also the goal today, but it’s super special to take the maglia […]
Continue reading the original article at: www.theguardian.com