Van der Poel lost the pink jersey to López; Won at Kämna Etna

Mathieu van der Poel lost his pink jersey to Spaniard Juan Pedro López at Etna. The fourth stage of the Giro d’Italia was won by the German Lennard Kämna, the Spanish Trek López was second and took the lead.

Van der Poel said he thought he would lose the pink jersey due to the tough final climb on Etna for the stage in Sicily. And he died. It was also not the best day for Tom Dumoulin: the former Giro winner and number three in the rankings left the group with the favorites on the final climb.

Leader group of fourteen

The fourth stage of the Giro covered 172 kilometers from Avola to Mount Etna. After about twenty kilometers, a leading group of fourteen people introduced themselves, including the Dutchman Jumbo-Visma Gijs Leemreize. The group took a maximum lead of almost eleven minutes.

Van der Poel was generally behind the group and didn’t seem too concerned about losing his jersey. In the front, Stefano Oldani, the Italian teammate of Van der Poel from Alpecin-Feniz, had nefarious plans. The gradually disintegrating leader attacked the flanks of Etna from within the group.

Oldani managed to increase the lead by one minute, but that was not enough. Spanish Trek rider López in the chasing group was on the far left of the climb and sped past Oldani with ten kilometers to go.

Van der Poel had been running less than two minutes behind the pack for a while. And Tom Dumoulin, who finished third in the general classification, had to leave the big favorites eight kilometers from the finish.

Pink for Lopez

For López, the pink jersey on top of Etna seemed ready, but less than three kilometers from the finish, Kämna joined him. The duo continued until the finish, when the Germans took the stage win and López took the pink jersey.

Leemreize, 22, a member of the first leading group, eventually finished sixth. He was the only Jumbo rider who had a good day, because in addition to Dumoulin, Tobias Foss and Sam Oomen also had to solve the group climb with favorites.

Wilco Kelderman (Bora) and Thymen Arensman (DSM) managed to stay in the favorites group without much effort and crossed the finish line – Richard Carapaz in front – 2.37 behind Kämna. Foss and Oomen lost 2.15 to Carapaz and his team, even Dumoulin had to lose 6.33.

Van der Poel crossed the finish line in just 23 minutes from stage winner Kämna.

“I worked hard for it, but it didn’t work out,” said Dumoulin after the 31-year-old Limburger had to say goodbye to any sorting requests.

Dumoulin is disappointed: “The body is not responding the way I want. The legs are full, I don’t have the strength from a few years ago. What’s the problem? I can’t say it now,” he said.