this post was submitted on 08 May 2025
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Stage 4 : Alberobello – Lecce, 189 km (Tuesday 13, dep. 12:55-13:05, ETA 17:00-17:25)
Pure sprinters stage.
Stage without difficulties, 50 points to the winner.
The ‘3 km’ rule applies for falls/incidents within 5 km from the finish.
Only splits larger or equal to 3 seconds are counted.
Delays: 7% if ≤ 40 km/h; 8% if ≤ 45 km/h; 10% otherwise.
Probably not a Pedersen stage, he's lost a little speed to gain climbing legs. I'm thinking Kooij or maybe Bennet, although I still think Pedersen will sprint for points.
So, the positions were more or less set at the last curve.
Only Groves (🇦🇺 Alpecin) managed to truly accelerate in the end; with a longer straight line he may have won (only finished 5^th^). My Fretin (🇧🇪 Cofidis) wasn't in a great position (not a terrible one either), but when he tried to overtake the riders in front of him, he clearly lacked power and failed; World Tour may be a bit tough for him (or he had no teammate to help him in the last kilometres and wasted a lot of energy navigating alone).
We had thought of Kooij🇳🇱 (2^nd^) but not of the other two Dutchmen Van Uden🇳🇱 (1^st^, Picnic) and Ziijlaard🇳🇱 (3^rd^, Tudor).
Same opinion for me.
But hey, as nothing was attempted during the first 2 mass start stages which were designed so (the organiser hadn't planned for such bunches to arrive: the rule was not 3-seconds minimal split), perhaps some loonies will attempt some big thing tomorrow just to keep on annoying me. 🤣
Anyway, I'd pick Kooij first as you did, then I'd venture Fretin. Then in any order Groves, Pedersen, Strong, Bennett.
I know Bennett did a good place on Tirreno–Adriatico (once), yet I still don't trust him to really perform elsewhere than on small French races.
Do we suppose Van Aert will sprint?
Hmm, I didn't list Aular who finished 3^rd^ twice, so may keep sprinting, for points at least. But is the cyclamen jersey an achievable goal for a rider who never finished a Grand Tour (it is only the second GT he starts)?
About points, perhaps the bunch will try to play the points of the first intermediate sprint this time, before letting go a sacrificial breakaway of Italian Proteams? It happens before km 40, after a mostly descending false flat profile reaching sea side and sea level for the intermediate sprint, apparently. Anyway, if they want to, it looks very doable.
There are 12 + 12 + 50 points to take tomorrow (Pedersen has 54 so far).
I forgot Magnier among my (ample) list of sprinters.
Blimey... My ample list wasn't ample enough! 😆
BTW, tomorrow it may be more interesting to follow the Dunkerque classique: https://www.4joursdedunkerque.com/ledition/ (edit: now that I look at the profile again, the climbs are rather small, and more worryingly the last one is 30 km away from the line, so unless there is some very bad weather or strong wind, it will also end as a bunch sprint 😢).
That's the one-day race.
On the day after, start the 4 days of Dunkerque. For 5 days... (Wednesday to Sunday, therefore in parallel with the Tour of Hungary, in addition to the Giro).
Both are class .Pro races.
So, nobody wanted to race here either, except Unibet. 3 guys went on top of the last climb, but the Picnic rider never relayed, and the Ineos and the Visma riders were radioed back too after a while. In the end, Visma's first man is 25^th^, and Ineos' first man is 37^th^ (and Picnic's one is 7^th^, he might gain one place as he was compressed by Girmay in the last metres, but...). Well done, directors...
Nice crash on a bus lane located in the middle of the road and elevated by just one inch or so compared to regular lanes: invisible after a turn, especially for any rider which wasn't directly in front...
Breakaway composed of a single rider, a Spanish Polti. Even the Italians refused to join him, even when Fortunato tried to ask someone to go with him.
Moniquet (🇧🇪 Cofidis) and Fortunato (🇮🇹 Astana) fought for the 2 and 1 points of the 4^th^ category climb . Moniquet started from the bottom of the small climb, which Fortunato hadn't planned; the Italian couldn't close the gap.
For the first intermediate sprint in the bunch after the solo breakaway, there were 4 contenders: Pedersen, Kooij, Groves and Strong. Tonelli didn't take part; neither did Aular or Van Aert.