Andreas Leknessund seized the chief’s pink jersey from Remco Evenepoel however was pipped to the stage victory by Aurelién Paret-Peintre after a dramatic fourth stage.
After an action-packed begin on Tuesday, a seven-man group engineered a breakaway on the 79km mark and progressively constructed a lead which was over 5 minutes at one level of the 175km journey from Venosa to Lago Laceno in southern Italy.
The stage profile combined hill climbs with three class 2 mountain climbs, permitting the breakaway to remain clear. On the ultimate ascent, the Colle Molella, the main duo of Paret-Peintre (AG2R-Citroën) and Leknessund (Team DSM) pulled away from the opposite breakaway contenders, together with Toms Skujins and Vincenzo Albanese.
Paret-Peintre stayed on his rival’s wheel on the ultimate descent earlier than overtaking within the ultimate metres to assert a stage win. Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) completed two minutes behind, giving Leknessund the general lead by 28 seconds, with Paret-Peintre two seconds additional again.
The 23-year-old Norwegian was overcome with emotion when he realised he can be carrying the maglia rosa. Skujins (Trek-Segafredo) was third on the day, 57 seconds behind the main pair.
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Stage 5 is a 171km journey beginning in Atripalda, that includes quite a few small climbs earlier than a flat run to the end at Salerno.
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