Casper van Uden sprints to 2nd after long effort and good team ride at Giro

A 172 kilometre route from Modena to Viadana for the 12th day of racing at the Giro d’Italia could have potentially been a banana-skin for the sprint teams, but from the start it was clear that it would be a fast finish come the end of the day. Team Picnic PostNL and several other squads looking for a fast finish made sure a small break went away, and things settled into a familiar pattern.

Team Picnic PostNL kept their calm and bubbled up well throughout the day, with a view of setting up stage four winner Casper van Uden for the fast finale. With the break caught, the team’s climbing group helped with some early positioning work in the last ten kilometres, while the washing machine effect was on full display. It meant that Van Uden was always kept in the first third of the bunch as the finish approached. Alex Edmondson and then Niklas Märkl took over and brought Van Uden into fourth wheel going under the flamme rouge.

Coming around the pivotal corner with around 400 metres to go, Van Uden left some rush room in front of him and opened up his sprint early in clean air; not wanting to risk getting boxed in. Putting power through the pedals and giving everything that he had, Kooij ultimately came past him just before the line, meaning it was a strong second place on the day for Team Picnic PostNL with Van Uden.

Van Uden said: “It was quite hectic but the guys looked after me well today and put me on a good wheel in the finale. I left a gap after the last corner and rushed into it. It was a bit early but it’s better to be a bit early than too late I think. I had the speed coming from the wheel, and it’s better to keep it than stop, do a second sprint and maybe get boxed. Olav is a fast guy so it’s not a shame to be second to him. I think we can be happy with today; we did a good job, I stayed calm, and could launch a clean sprint – so I think we can be happy.”

Team Picnic PostNL coach Matt Winston added: “I saw some real fight from the guys to be really around Casper today, and bring him into position to go for it in the sprint. To be honest that’s what I’m most happy with; we were always fighting back to be together, always making that effort to come together, with the ultimate goal of that Casper could make a sprint in the final straight. He was then able to do that in a really good way.”