Giro d’Italia, Matthews wins the fourth stage in the rain. Evenepoel remains in pink

A stage, all rain, curves, nervousness, crashes and in the end, at the finish line in Melfi, Australia celebrates with Michael Matthews, one of the hottest names since the start in Vasto. The Jayco-AlUla sprinter burns Mads Pedersen and his compatriot Kaden Groves at the finish line, third also in San Salvo. Fourth Vincenzo Albanese and fifth Stefano Oldani, two young Italians with excellent prospects. Evenepoel defends the pink jersey and indeed strengthens the lead with a second earned in a flying finish on Roglic: another psychological challenge won by the young Flemish.

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The stage

A tandem action by the Italian team Corratec-Selle Italia, with Konychev and Stojnic, starts at km 2 and ends at -35, at the beginning of the first of the two climbs of the day, the one towards Monticchio lakes. Once the escape was reabsorbed, it was Jonathan Milan, in a cyclamen jersey, who jumped first. The uphill rhythm is set by the Italian champion Zana of Jayco, but the third category gpm is taken by Thibaut Pinot. After a short slight slope he starts climbing again towards Valico La Croce. Ineos sets the pace, but Pinot still takes the lead, thus making it clear what his goal in the Giro could be. Pedersen returns to the downhill, the great favorite on paper in such a nervous stage: the former world champion had broken away on the climb. The worst comes downhill, on a bad asphalt made even more treacherous by the light rain that fell on the race: lots of crashes and a lot of nervousness. Almeida struggles to keep up with the group also due to a mechanical problem. Evenepoel wins Rapolla’s flying finish on Roglic: another psychological signal and another second earned by the pink jersey on the Slovenian.

The finish is very nervous and the track, although without significant climbs, is extremely tortuous and difficult to control. Zana and Jayco work perfectly, for at least a couple of km in the dark of the cameras for a jump of the international signal right at -2. The images come back when the runners are already in the last km. And it is Michael Matthews who finds the winning idea on the line. For the Australian from Jayco-AlUla this is the third success in his career at the Giro (he had won in 2014 in Montecassino and in 2015 in Sestri Levante. “A long and boring day” explained the stage winner “but we had a program since from the beginning, do everything to win. Winning was the easiest part of the day, the hardest part was paying attention to crashes and staying on your feet”. Matthews’ last victory was on Mende’s day, in the Tour de France 2022.

Evenepoel: “Now I’ll leave the jersey to a reliable rider”

Remco Evenepoel remains in the squad, but regarding the possibility of dropping the jersey in the Lago Laceno stage, he hasn’t changed his mind: “Everything went well, it went smoothly, but in these stages you have to be super-concentrated. The worst things happen in these easy stages. The plan tomorrow is to lose the pink jersey from a trusted rider. But we will have to analyze carefully the situation that will emerge at the start of the stage. Wearing the jersey is nice, but work after the stage is very long and stressful for the race leader “.