Dane Pedersen wins in a sprint and takes back the pink jersey. The Giro returns to Italy
3' min read
3' min read
On the first rest day, it's back home. The caravan of the Giro d'Italia, after the Albanian triptych that ended yesterday in Valona with the second sprint victory of Danish rider Mark Pedersen (once again in the pink jersey), re-enters the peninsula in view of the fourth stage that from Alberobello after 183 km will end in Lecce.
Tomorrow's is a stage for sprinters, almost a spot for the beauties of Apulia, which should not add much more to the classification and to the first results of a race that is of course still open, given that there are still 18 stages and around 48,000 metres of altitude difference to go (first of June in Rome).
They say that the Giro is won in the last week, but that you start losing it already in the first week. In the sense that it becomes clear almost immediately who will struggle to emerge and who will instead be a candidate for the podium and the pink jersey
Well, giving to Pedersen what is Pedersen's, amazing both in the sprint and in holding up without difficulty to the almost 3 thousand metres of altitude difference of a very demanding stage, the first candidate for the final success is, as you know, the Slovenian Primoz Roglic, second on Saturday in the Tirana time trial and above all a natural leader both because of his fine CV (1 Giro d'Italia, 4 Vuelta,) and because in these three days he has shown, in the absence of Pogacar, that he wants to repeat his previous success of 2023.
Some say Primoz is too old (35 years and seven months) to make it as he would also beat Fiorenzo Magni's record, maglia rosa at the age of 34 in 1954. Times have changed a lot since that post-war cycling and it was seen by the way Roglic lined up all his direct opponents in the time trial.
