ProTeam Lennert Van Eetvelt gains confidence from seventh place in stage four of the Giro d’Italia

Van Eetvelt can head into the demanding fifth day of the Giro with confidence. After Movistar Team set a fierce pace and split the peloton, Van Eetvelt managed to stay with the leading group into the finale and contest the sprint. The result was a strong seventh place. “I wanted to see whether my sprint was in decent shape,” said Van Eetvelt. “It wasn’t bad, but against riders like Jhonatan Narváez it’s obviously never easy. So I’m definitely happy with seventh place.”

“Today wasn’t one of the stages I had marked out. The race was very nervous from the start and, with the forecasted wind, we had agreed beforehand not to worry too much about possible echelon formations and just stay calm near the back of the peloton. But obviously, if I don’t have to drop back, I’m not going to. On the climb- which was much harder than expected, by the way; I really didn’t think the sprinters would survive it- everything got shaken up, and I was able to move up calmly.”

Van Eetvelt eventually entered the finale with around forty other riders and sprinted to a fine seventh place. He also moves into seventh place in the general classification, ten seconds behind new race leader Giulio Ciccone. “Of course, the chance of taking the pink jersey gets smaller every day. I came here mainly for a stage win and not specifically for the general classification. We’ll just take it day by day and see how things go. Starting tomorrow, because that will once again be a tough stage.”

Stage four also brought mixed feelings for Lotto–Intermarché, as Arnaud De Lie was unfortunately forced to abandon the race. Following the Lotto Famenne Ardenne Classic, he- like several other riders in the peloton- fell ill after ingesting bacteria from the road surface. Yesterday’s rest day brought no improvement: De Lie did not recover sufficiently and is forced to leave this Giro d’Italia due to illness.

Picture: PhotoNews