Pozzovivo tests his legs following Campenaerts breakaway in Giro d'Italia 4th stage
Sestola, 11 May 2021 - Stage four of the Giro d'Italia saw the general classification race spark to life, and Team Qhubeka ASSOS' Domenico Pozzovivo able to test his climbing legs for the first time as he finished strongly in Sestola.
Pozzovivo crossed the line just over two minutes behind the day's winner and is now 20th in the general classification, just over two minutes behind the new maglia rosa, Alessandro de Marchi.
The stage was won by Joe Dombrowski in a late surge to the finish after a long, wet and cold day with Pozzovivo limiting his time loss to the main GC contenders in the final kilometre.
Earlier on it had been Victor Campenaerts who was among the early animators from the start in Piacenza and he spent the majority of the day in the breakaway before some of the sharp climbs took their toll in the latter stages.
Campenaerts and compatriot Quinten Hermans attacked from the start opening up a narrow gap which eventually saw 23 other riders join them in the day's breakaway, after which a trio rode away and nearly stayed away until the final stages.
Stage five from Modena to Cattolica is a flat 177km and should result in a bunch sprint with European and Italian champion Giacomo Nizzolo once again taking the lead for Team Qhubeka ASSOS.
Domenico Pozzovivo
It was a hard stage because of the weather; five hours in the rain while the last 100km was all up and down and so you needed to be very focused throughout the stage to not make any mistakes in positioning, it was quite hard for me to hold my position in these conditions.
The feeling was not so bad but finally in the last kilometre when the GC guys, the best riders attacked, I just had to manage my own pace and I lost a few seconds. I think I can expect more in the next few days, my shape is not too bad and I think with the bad weather it (performance) was okay today.
We've just started this race and there are a lot of climbs in this first week, so we'll try to improve.
