Katusha’s rider Luca Paolini was able to hold his pink jersey after today’s hard, long and rainy 4th stage of Giro d’Italia.
The stage from Policastro to Serra San Bruno of 246 km was characterized by cold weather, rain and two climbs, the last one Croce Ferrata with just 7 km to the finish line.
Despite of favorable stage profile, the stage final missed any serious attacks of the favorites. After the daily breakaway was caught by the peloton leaded by Katusha, the only riders who tried to surprise the group were Danilo Di Luca from Fini-Fantini and Robinson Chalapud fromColumbia, both neutralized in the last km.
In the final sprint Enrico Battaglin from Bardiani was the rider who won the stage. Fabio Felline from Androni Giocattoli and Giovanni Visconti from Movistar completed the podium.
Luca Paolini finished in the leader’s group in 10th position. Giampaolo Caruso did 16th, while Yuriy Trofimov finished 39th with +0.10.
Thus, Katusha saved its pink jersey without big problems. After 4th stage Paolini has 17 seconds of advantage ahead of Rigoberto Uran from Sky. Giampaolo Caruso is 7th (+0.36), Yuriy Trofimov is 13th (+0.46).
– Today we knew it would have been a difficult day, but the team was great, they believed me, they leaded the group from the start, so I am happy to have the pink jersey for one more day. It was a hard finish for my characteristics, but I was able to keep up in two daily climbs. I tried to stay in front of the group because of that bad weather I was afraid to slip. With yesterday victory and one more day in pink I think we are proving we deserved the WorldTour license, – said Luca PAOLINI.
Luca Paolini holds the lead in point’s classification too (the red jersey). Katusha Team is still the leader in the team’s classification.
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