Giro d'Italia stage 4: Aurélien Paret-Peintre wins from breakaway

Aurélien Paret-Peintre (AG2R Citroën) powered to his first ever Grand Tour stage win on today’s fourth stage of the Giro d’Italia - a 174.5km-long, mountainous affair from Venosa to Lago Laceno.

The Frenchman doggedly held onto the wheel of his breakaway companion, Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM), on the final climb before winning the two-up sprint for the line by quite a comfortable margin.

With a stage win and potential stint in the maglia rosa on offer at the finish in Lago Laceno today, the battle for the early breakaway was incredibly fierce. So fierce, in fact, that it took more than two hours for a seven-rider group to finally establish itself at the head of the race. Once the breakaway materialised, however, the gap to the peloton behind quickly blossomed.

On the final climb - Colle Molella - the front group was whittled down as the gradients got steeper and steeper. Leknessund highlighted himself as the strongest, forging clear on the upper slopes.

Paret-Peintre was distanced momentarily, but he fought his way back in, caught Leknessund and forced him to lead out the finale. In the sprint for the line the Norwegian was no match for the Frenchman.

While Leknessund may have missed out on the biggest win of his career so far, he did manage to ride himself into the maglia rosa. The peloton, containing race leader Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step), rolled over the line in Lago Laceno 2:01 down, which was enough to see Leknessund leapfrog 17 places in GC and take pink. He now leads Evenepoel by 28 seconds, while Paret-Peintre sits in third, 30 seconds in arrears.

The maglia rosa is more than just a consolation prize. Photo: © Velo Collection (Stuart Franklin) /Getty Images.

“It is super special to have the pink jersey. The plan was initially to go for the stage win, but in the back of my mind I also knew that the pink jersey would be possible. I went all-in for a while,” said Leknessund, recounting his attack on the final climb. “But in the end he [Paret-Peintre] came back.” The prize of pink was a bittersweet one for Leknessund who almost didn’t start this year’s race following the death of a close family member.