Giro d'Italia Giro d'Italia 2025 Stage 4: Alberobello – Lecce

[Sciatic]

This stage was very chaotic in the last 30 km and delivered nothing in entertainment. In fact, only the gravel stage will be interesting in this first week.
Del Toro got 4 seconds, is he UAE's secret weapon?

I think tomorrow can be interesting, but not GC wise.

 

[Sciatic]

Its just a meme Dutch people spam under any content remotely related to the Dutch.

Urban Dictionary: gekoloniseerd

None

www.urbandictionary.com

Love it, another gem from the CN forum

 

[Wyndbrook]

Shocked to read anyone still uses Twitter, but yes; Kooij is from Numansdorp. Van Uden is from Schiedam and Zijlaard from Rotterdam (his aunt Leontine van Moorsel lives in Nieuwerkerk ad IJssel). Its all within 20 km from Rotterdam.

Quite few teams, organisers, riders and even the UCI still post regularly on X.

 

[Zoetemelk-fan]

Just woke up, missed Il Grande Finale t'day, but read SKA is in pains, maybe broken collar bone.

So much for sightseeing in Lecce.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Googling really didn't me much with that one.

According to my online translator, the English equivalent is SOURROUNRYED.

 

[AnotherArmChair]

Keldermerckx dropping out of GC today

did he crash ? He hardly did it deliberately and it was a flat stage so he wasnt dropped
I know TVL have Simon Yates but surely Wilco was hoping to do GC ???
Wilco , wilco wilco

 

[theyoungest]

Don't know if it's true but I read on Twitter that the entire podium Today consists of guys who are from the same region. Zijlaard, Van Uden and Kooij all being from around Rotterdam. Having a podium of one nationality is already quite something but this is quite nuts.

And I suppose if you ask the average Rotterdammer about any of them, name recognition would be close to zero

 

[KZD]

Extremely important win for Picnic, good leadout from Welten to deliver Van Uden to the sprint.

 

[Cookster15]

Congrats to Van Uden and Team Picnic.

But is Pederson a pure printer? He was right there in pink. Not sure how we can say he is "really really slow this year" ?

 

[Boehmand]

Pedersen is really, really slow this year.

Let's remember he crashed today - and had to spend the better part of the last 20K making it back to the front on his own.

But that being said it makes sense

He has focused on being more competitive in San Remo and Ronde, which costs some raw power in a flat sprint... and that change of focus is also why the team brought in Milan, because Pedersen didn't want to be the token "bunch sprinter" in the team, he wanted a wider range of terrain to be competitive in.

In an uphill sprint I'd still take him any day - and even more than before, because on any gradient above 3 %, he is even better now.

IMO we should view him more like a Michael Matthews type with a slightly higher top speed these days.

 

[Boehmand]

I think tomorrow can be interesting, but not GC wise.

I wanna see the pink jersey in the early break tomorrow.

 

[hayneplane]

Let's remember he crashed today - and had to spend the better part of the last 20K making it back to the front on his own.

But that being said it makes sense

He has focused on being more competitive in San Remo and Ronde, which costs some raw power in a flat sprint... and that change of focus is also why the team brought in Milan, because Pedersen didn't want to be the token "bunch sprinter" in the team, he wanted a wider range of terrain to be competitive in.

In an uphill sprint I'd still take him any day - and even more than before, because on any gradient above 3 %, he is even better now.

IMO we should view him more like a Michael Matthews type with a slightly higher top speed these days.

To my mind he was always a classics oriented rider with a weapon of a sprint rather than one who could consistently beat the best sprinters on the pan flat finishes after a easy day type stage like today.

 

[Potomac]

According to my online translator, the English equivalent is SOURROUNRYED.

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[Cycling111]

Surely Pidcock and Roglic will be bigger favorites?

Under normal circumstances I´d say that Pidcock is the favorite, but I´ve doubts because he´s had a very busy schedule before the Giro.

If he isn´t fatigued Pidcock undoubtedly win.

 

[Brullnux]

Let's remember he crashed today - and had to spend the better part of the last 20K making it back to the front on his own.

But that being said it makes sense

He has focused on being more competitive in San Remo and Ronde, which costs some raw power in a flat sprint... and that change of focus is also why the team brought in Milan, because Pedersen didn't want to be the token "bunch sprinter" in the team, he wanted a wider range of terrain to be competitive in.

In an uphill sprint I'd still take him any day - and even more than before, because on any gradient above 3 %, he is even better now.

IMO we should view him more like a Michael Matthews type with a slightly higher top speed these days.

I agree, I think he's a changed rider. His climbing is now really, really good, but it's come at the expense of his sprint, which is good but a lot less so than it used to be.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Congratulations to Casper van Uden for winning the sprint, that was no picnic.

A bit unexpected winner but main favourites did have issues, Pedersen crashing, then chasing, no real lead-out, Kooij and Wout totally at different places ... That reduction in the circuit was just wicked, good that they did a dry run before actually racing in the final lap. Rogla nicking that 2s and more leadership issues emerging for UAE. No picnic at all.

 

[Boehmand]

I agree, I think he's a changed rider. His climbing is now really, really good, but it's come at the expense of his sprint, which is good but a lot less so than it used to be.

I don't think it's that large of a difference - we still have to remember he was down and arrived in the final K gassed today - so he may be a contnder already on Thursday..

I'd also say that his results the last 2 years have been the best in his career - with the obvious exception of when he took the rainbow.

He wasn't exactly a dominant flat road sprinter 3 years ago, so against top 5 sprinters on a flat road, he would always struggle to win consistently.