Giro Next Gen in Fiorin the sprint from Corato

A masterpiece sprint crowns Matteo Fiorin at the finish line of the fourth stage of the Giro Next Gen, in Corato, Puglia. The Desio della Solme runner Olmo Arvedi celebrated his 21st birthday on the very day the Giro started, and yesterday he gave himself the best gift. “Unforgettable. We weren’t happy after the first sprint, but here we made up for it, with an exceptional performance – he said still lying on the ground while his teammates covered him with hugs – It wasn’t a simple sprint, a rider had anticipated and I was afraid that this time too I would have to postpone the appointment with success. I still can’t fully realize what I did. It was a magical day, we wanted to respond with facts to some of the criticisms that had been leveled at us after the first sprint. I sprinted with my heart, not just my legs, and it went great.”

the stage

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Nicolò Pizzi (Team Technipes #inEmiliaRomagna Caffè Borbone) had tried to anticipate the sprint, one kilometer from the finish line, but Fiorin overtook him in the last twenty meters and left him no escape. “When I saw his attack I thought that the team had worked so hard for nothing. I decided to start very long, just so I could do it.” Third Davide Donati, for an all-Italian podium. It is the second success of an Italian rider in this Giro. Fiorin is an excellent track rider, already in the national team. For once the pink jersey does not change, which remains on the shoulders of Jasper Schoofs (Soudal Quick-Step Devo). The Belgian fell in the last kilometre, but there was neutralization in the last 5 and thus he saved the lead.

O’Brien drama

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Irishman Liam O’Brien, rider for Lidl Trek Racing Future, has left the group: unfortunately his brother Shane, 16, died while training on his time trial bike, in County Waterford: the young O’Brien collided with a parked lorry on the N72 road in Ballygalane, just outside Lismore, on Tuesday morning.