Van Uden wins sprint as Pedersen retains race lead

Casper van Uden claimed his first Grand Tour stage win by sprinting to victory in the Giro d’Italia.

The Dutchman held off compatriots Olav Kooij and Maikel Zijlaard to claim the victory in a chaotic finish to stage four in Lecce.

Mads Pedersen, who won stages one and three, finished fourth and retains the leader’s pink jersey.

However, the 29-year-old’s lead over Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Primoz Roglic has been cut by two seconds, with the Slovenian now seven seconds off first place.

Stage four marked the first day of racing in Italy following three days in Albania and Monday’s rest day.

Spain’s Francisco Munoz spent 140km off the front after making an early solo breakaway and led by more than four minutes before being reeled back in with 55km to go in a race controlled by the sprint teams.

Race leader Pedersen was forced to chase back to catch the peloton after being caught up in a crash, alongside team-mate Soren Kragh Andersen, with 22km to go.

On a Lecce circuit full of bottleneck turns, Van Uden’s Picnic PostNL team pinched the lead from Alpecin-Deceuninck, riding for Kaden Groves, in the final kilometre, before the 23-year-old opened up a long sprint to victory.

“I didn’t do it alone. I did it with the whole team,” said Van Uden. “I didn’t have to take any wind until 200m to go.

“I know I have a good long sprint, so I went for it and hoped for the best.”

In the general classification, Isaac del Toro leapfrogged Juan Ayuso into fifth place. Great Britain’s Max Poole remains seventh, 33 seconds behind Pedersen.