2023-05-10 02:47:43
Frenchman Aurélien Paret-Peintre (AG2R-Citroën) won the fourth stage of the Tour of Italy on Tuesday at Lago Laceno by winning the sprint ahead of Norwegian Leknessund who took the leader’s pink jersey. This is the third victory of his career, by far the most beautiful, for the 27-year-old Savoyard climber.
Between Venosa and Lago Laceno, the two men proved to be the strongest in a breakaway of seven riders who resisted the return of the peloton in which Remco Evenepoel, as he had announced, dropped the lead in the general classification. The Belgian is now second in the general classification, 28 seconds behind Leknessund, and two seconds ahead of Paret-Peintre, third.
“The Giro was my big goal for the year, I prepared thoroughly for these three weeks, commented the Frenchman. Today, I wanted to be in the breakaway. It’s magnificent: we came to win a stage so it’s great for my team”. While Leknessund first broke away on the last part of the final climb, Paret-Peintre managed to pick up on the flat in the last three kilometers to win.
“I knew I was faster”
“I knew I was faster than him, so I waited until the end to make the difference,” added Paret-Peintre. Winner of the GP de la Marseillaise in 2021, and the Tour des Alpes-Maritimes and Var at the start of the year, Paret-Peintre offers his AG2R-Citroën team its first victory in the World Tour (first division) in 2023.
But there were two happy men on Tuesday as Leknessund, a young 23-year-old climber, put on the leader’s jersey for the first time in a Grand Tour. “It’s really great, I wanted to win the stage because I didn’t know if it was going to do for the pink jersey. I put everything into an attack but my legs hurt so much. It was the goal this morning to take the pink jersey, but cycling is so hard. So it’s just amazing to get there,” commented the Norwegian.
Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) retains the lead in the climbers’ classification.
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