2016 Giro d’Italia: Stage 4 Results

Tom Dumoulin retakes Maglia Rosa after sprinting to second place in Praia a Mare in Stage 4 of the 2016 Giro d’Italia.

As action resumed after yesterday’s rest day, the peloton took on 200km of racing from Catanzaro to Praia a Mare with four riders forming the early break.

In the early part of the race, Etixx Quick Step took up the chase and the gap never exceeded a maximum of 3 minutes. However on the San Pietro climb, the race came to alive with our guys putting on an impressive show of teamwork at the front to decimate the peloton and see some of the sprinters drop including Kittel.

As the reduced bunch headed into the final 20km lots of attacks took place as we had Tom Dumoulin and Georg Preidler at the front on the final climb of the day.

Diego Ulissi (Lampre – Merida) won the stage after a late attack as Tom Dumoulin sprinted to an impressive second place and regained the pink jersey.

In the overall classification now, Tom Dumoulin is in the lead with an advantage of 20″ over the second place. It was also a huge performance by Georg Preidler who is now fifth overall.

REACTION

“I was feeling good at the start of the stage. We knew that the finale was hard but we weren’t sure if it was difficult enough to regain the pink jersey.

“We made a plan to pull on the 2nd category climb and we were able to decimate the bunch. From then on the race was completely uncontrollable but we had four guys in the top 10 so we had several cards to play with.

“On the final climb, Georg was really strong and could follow the late attack. Our aim was to play it smart and get in a good position, as there were not a lot of riders left in the bunch.

“It is fantastic to be back in the pink jersey, which is what we were aiming for at the start of today.

“Once again my main focus for this Giro is on the time trials. I didn’t have any specific general classification preparation in terms of an altitude training camp. So I don’t expect my level to be good enough to compete in the high mountains during the last week.”

Coach Marc Reef said after the race: “It was a very fast start to the race today with some dangerous riders for the GC in the early break. Therefore, the bunch was always in control and the gap never exceeded the 3′.

“The plan before the stage was to race offensively and we decided to open up on the first climb of the day. We needed to do something because we had four guys in the top 10 and there was a big possibility to go for a stage victory or to regain the leader’s jersey.

“On the final climb of the day, Georg was able to follow the first group as Tom remained in the GC group. He followed his instinct and sprinted to the second place and managed to retake the pink jersey. The team rode a very impressive race and they executed the plan very well.”

Stage 4 Brief Results:

1. Diego Ulissi (Italy / Lampre) 4:46:51″
2. Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands / Giant) +5″
3. Steven Kruijswijk (Netherlands / LottoNL)
4. Alejandro Valverde (Spain / Movistar) +6″
5. Gianluca Brambilla (Italy / Etixx – Quick-Step)
6. Vincenzo Nibali (Italy / Astana)
7. Ilnur Zakarin (Russia / Katusha)
8. Matteo Busato (Italy / Wilier Triestina)
9. Esteban Chaves (Colombia / Orica)
10. Nicolas Roche (Ireland / Team Sky)

General Classification After Stage 4:

1. Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands / Giant) 14:00:09″
2. Bob Jungels (Luxembourg / Etixx – Quick-Step) +20″
3. Diego Ulissi (Italy / Lampre)
4. Steven Kruijswijk (Netherlands / LottoNL) +24″
5. Georg Preidler (Austria / Giant)
6. Vincenzo Nibali (Italy / Astana) +26″
7. Alejandro Valverde (Spain / Movistar) +31″
8. Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark / Astana) +35″
9. Nicolas Roche (Ireland / Team Sky) +37″
10. Esteban Chaves (Colombia / Orica)

Team Classification:

1. Astana (Kazakhstan) 42:01:56″
2. Etixx – Quick-Step (Belgium) +13″
3. Team Sky (Britain) +34″
4. Katusha (Russia) +36″
5. Cannondale (United States) +40″