A tactical relinquishing of the maglia rosa or the first chinks in Remco Evenepoel’s pink armour? Time will tell. But on Tuesday’s tough 175km Stage 4 from Venosa to Lago Laceno, the Belgian world champion was left isolated by his rivals and conceded the race lead to Norway’s Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM).
Leknessund was part of a seven-man breakaway which did not form until halfway through the frantic stage, the 23-year-old debutant missing out on the win but doing enough to become only the second Norwegian in history to don the pink jersey. Ad Despite a spirited attack on the final climb of the day to distance his remaining breakaway companions, Leknessund was pegged back by Frenchman Aurelien Paret-Peintre (AG2R Citroen) just ahead of the summit before the duo rode towards the finish in a tense tandem ahead of a two-way dart to the line at Lago Laceno.
Giro d'ItaliaWatch Evenepoel casually take off leg-warmers while speeding along on Stage 4AN HOUR AGO After going deep to drop Paret-Peintre on the climb, Leknessund had nothing left in the tank as his 27-year-old rival snared the biggest win of his career. But consolation came in the form of the pink jersey, secured once Evenepoel crossed the line without any of his Soudal Quick-Step team-mates in the main pack just over two minutes behind.
Leknessund now leads Evenepoel by 28 seconds in the new-look general classification with Paret-Peintre up to third place a further two seconds back. After recovering from some early problems in the stage, Portugal’s Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) is fourth at 1’00”, 12 seconds ahead of fifth place Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma).
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