Giulio Ciccone in pink jersey for the first time: "Repaid all the bad luck"

Giulio Ciccone is the new leader of the Giro d’Italia. The Lidl-Trek rider wore the pink jersey at the end of the fourth stage of the pink race, the first in Italy. The 138-kilometer stage from Catanzaro to Cosenza was won by Jhonatan Narvaez, after his teammate Jan Christen had tried to get ahead of the peloton with a finisseur attack that was repelled right at the start of the final straight.

Narvaez got the better of Orluis Aular and Giulio Ciccone, who, after gaining 2″ at the Red Bull Km, added to his personal haul the 4″ bonus at the finish, seconds that allowed him to dress for the first time in his career.

“I’ve experienced so many difficult moments at the Giro. The last one just a year ago, when I retired after a crash while a great result in the general classification was looming, a result we needed as a team as well. But I’ve also had some great moments at the Giro, and today’s makes up for all the bad luck, injuries, Covid and so on. The decision to defend the Maglia Rosa will be made by the team, as always.”

“You have to keep in mind that we came to the Giro with an 80 percent sprint-oriented lineup and with Derek Gee for the general classification, while some teams here are built entirely around a leader. You don’t improvise a defense of the Maglia Rosa. We have to be realistic. But I can put on the table my good condition and my desire to fight, which remains unquestionable I would like to take the Pink Jersey as far as possible, at least until Blockhaus, but up there it would be very difficult to keep it against champions like Jonas Vingegaard.”