15-05-2025
- Sport
- Independent Singapore
Casper van Uden wins Giro d'Italia stage four in Lecce, leading an all-Dutch podium
Casper van Uden successfully gained his first-ever Grand Tour stage win with a sprint finish on stage four of the Giro d'Italia, alongside leading an all-Dutch podium. The Picnic PostNL rider went beyond fellow Dutchmen Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Maikel Zijlaard (Tudor) in a fierce race to win the competition.
In a social media post, van Uden shared the achievement to the public and captioned it as 'WE did it!🍾 Massive shout out to the boys for their hard work and all the other people involved. You never win alone 🫶 #giroditalia'
Netizens celebrated Casper's win with praise and admiration, calling him a 'golden boy' and saying the achievement was well deserved. One commented, 'Golden boy delivers! 🔥🥇' Highlights of the race
This marked the event's return to Italy after three opening stages in Albania. The riders needed to go through a 189-kilometre route from Alberobello to Lecce, which was ideal for sprinters.
Spain's Francisco Muñoz (Team Polti VisitMalta) broke away from the pack early on. At about 125km to go, there was an unfortunate crash in the main group of riders, which involved Mads Pedersen, Tom Pidcock, and Nickolas Zukowsky.
Zukowsky, who was racing his first Giro d'Italia, had to exit the race with a suspected broken collarbone.
In the final stretch, teams worked together to get their sprinters into position. With this, Casper van Uden made his move at just the right moment and sprinted to the finish, winning his first stage since June 2024.
' I didn't do it alone – we did it with the whole team. All the boys here and all the staff here, and in HQ as well. They did super work. I didn't have to do anything until 200m to go. I had a good sprint and went for it. We've done a really good job all season with the leadouts,' the athlete said of his victory.
He added, 'I knew I had to just follow Bram [Welten] and the boys – they did a super good job and I'm really happy to give them something back. I'm not surprised, and I know all the boys have a lot of belief in me.'
Van Uden's win is a big boost of confidence for his team, Picnic-PostNL, as they fight to stay in the World Tour. The Dutch team is at risk of being relegated, so the stage victory is very important at this crucial time.
Moreover, Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) leads, having seven seconds ahead of Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) in the overall standings. Mathias Vacek, Pedersen's teammate, is in third place, 14 seconds behind.
