Team Bahrain Victorious rider Phil Bauhaus claimed an impressive podium yesterday in stage four of this year’s Giro d’Italia.
The German was in the thick of the fight for the victory in a tight sprint finish and came away with the squad’s best classification thus far in the 21-leg Grand tour cycling event.
Bauhaus completed the 190-kilometre stage classified only behind winner Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek and Kaden Groves of Alpecin-Deceuninck.
His teammates followed not far back. Italians Andrea Pasqualon, Antonio Tiberi, Edoardo Zambanini, and Damiano Caruso were 34th, 36th, 40th, and 45th, respectively, while German Jasha Sutterlin in 57th and Austrian Rainer Kepplinger in 125th rounded off the Team Bahrain Victorious finishers.
The squad’s Norwegian rider Torstein Træn was forced to abandon the day’s action due to the knee injury he suffered after his crash in the opening stage. As a result, Bahrain will be down to seven riders when the race continues today.
Bauhaus later commented: “It was a controlled day from the start and we went quite hard. It started to rain and it felt like, at one corner where there was a big crash, that there was something on the road and it was very slippery. I almost also crashed and we had a tailwind and everything came back together.
“I felt good. I trailed Milan and I tried to position myself. I was believing in the win but I lost a bit of energy and then I was a bit close. I think with the situation we were in, we were able to get third place and build up on this result.”
Following the fourth stage, Caruso remained in 16th place on the general classification for the Maglia Rosa or leader’s ‘pink jersey’, while Tiberi climbed two spots to 24th.
Bauhaus, meanwhile, rose 35 places to eighth on the points rankings for the Maglia Ciclamino or ‘purple jersey’, while Tiberi stayed in eighth on the rankings for the Maglia Bianca or ‘white jersey’, which is worn by the best young rider.
The Giro d’Italia, the first of three Grand Tour events on the 2024 Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) World Tour calendar, continues today with a 178km fifth stage, starting from Genova and ending at Lucca.
&uuid=(email))