Casper van Uden won the fourth stage of the Giro d’Italia 2025. The Dutchman from Team Picnic PostNL was unbeatable in the sprint, beating true specialists and favorites such as Olav Kooij and Mads Pedersen. The change from Albania to the transalpine country has been good for the pure sprinters, while the Danish Lidl-Trek rider will remain in pink for another day.
The arrival in Italy presented us with a day of 189 kilometers between Alberobello (Pietramadre) and Lecce. A day a priori quiet for the men in the general classification, in which a sprint fight between the sprinters present in the race was expected. It all started with an attack by Francisco Muñoz, Spaniard of the Polti Kometa of Alberto Contador’s Polti Kometa team.
The 23-year-old Asturian was finally the only one in the day’s breakaway. At the end of the first third of the stage, Mads Pedersen was involved in a crash with about 15 other riders. This accident caused the abandonment of a man from the Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team, more specifically the 26-year-old Canadian Nickolas Zukowsky.
As we reached the Red Bull kilometer at Ostuni, the peloton was closing the gap Francisco Muñoz, who was up to 5 minutes ahead. At the intermediate point, the men in the general classification took advantage of the remaining bonuses to fight it out in the sprint. Movistar Team was the first team to accelerate the pace, which was quickly answered by Primoz Roglic.
In the end, Mexico’s Isaac del Toro was the fastest, earning a 4-second bonus, with Roglic adding 2 seconds. The Mexican UAE Team Emirates XRG rider thus overtook Juan Ayuso in the overall Juan Ayuso in the general classification, moving up to fifth place. The Spaniard also contested the sprint, but could only finish third. Del Toro also served to take those 2 seconds off Roglic and protect his leader.
From that moment on, it was the usual calm day when we have a completely flat course. Francisco Muñoz was caught with 56 kilometers to go, just before the last intermediate point of the day. Mads Pedersen and Olav Kooij fought for the sprint to score as many points as possible for the regularity classification and the Dutchman from Visma – Lease a Bike was faster than the maglia rosa.
The last 50 kilometers were monotonous, with the peloton accelerating from less to more through the teams of the main sprinters of this Giro. In the final sprint, Casper van Uden, the Dutch sprinter from Team Picnic PostNL, pulled off the real surprise and beat the day’s favorites, Olav Kooij and Mads Pedersen.
The Italian round will continue on Wednesday with the fifth stage, which will take the riders to riders from Ceglie Messapica to Matera over 151 kilometers with a second-category mountain pass (5.5 km) with a second category mountain pass (5.6 km at 4.5%) in the final part of the day.
Giro d’Italia (2.UWT)
Results Stage 4 | Alberobello (Pietramadre) – Lecce (189 km)
| 1 | Casper van Uden | Team Picnic PostNL | 4:02:21 |
| 2 | Olav Kooij | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | m.t. |
| 3 | Maikel Zijlaard | Tudor Pro Cycling Team | m.t. |
| 4 | Pedersen Mads | Lidl-Trek | m.t. |
| 5 | Kanter Max | XDS Astana Team | m.t. |
| 6 | Groves Kaden | Alpecin-Deceuninck | m.t. |
| 7 | Bennett Sam | Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team | m.t. |
| 8 | Magnier Paul | Soudal Quick-Step | m.t. |
| 9 | Turner Ben | INEOS Grenadiers | m.t. |
| 10 | Moschetti Matteo | Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team | m.t. |
Ranking ndividual
| 1 | Mads Pedersen | Lidl-Trek | 11:44:31 |
| 2 | Primoz Roglic | Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe | 0:07 |
| 3 | Mathias Vacek | Lidl-Trek | 0:14 |
| 4 | Brandon McNulty | UAE Team Emirates-XRG | 0:21 |
| 5 | Isaac del Toro | UAE Team Emirates-XRG | 0:22 |
| 6 | Juan Ayuso | UAE Team Emirates-XRG | 0:25 |
| 7 | Max Poole | Team Picnic PostNL | 0:33 |
| 8 | Antonio Tiberi | Bahrain Victorious | 0:34 |
| 9 | Michael Storer | Tudor Pro Cycling Team | 0:36 |
| 10 | Giulio Pellizzari | Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe | 0:40 |