Team Picnic PostNL dominate sprint as Casper van Uden storms to Giro stage 4 win

It didn’t take long for Team Picnic PostNL to get into the swing of things at the Giro d’Italia, as they were triumphant for the first time in their new colours at a Grand Tour, securing a brilliant win on Thursday afternoon with Casper van Uden.

A calm day of racing turned hectic and chaotic on the twisting roads of Lecce, but Team Picnic PostNL remained calm, steadfast and united throughout. Controlling from the front of the bunch the team ensured that GC finishers Max Poole and Romain Bardet got through without any time loss, while also keeping fast finisher Van Uden to the fore.

Expertly moving forward in the last four kilometres the team’s sprint group peeled off one-by-one, keeping the speed high so that Van Uden and last lead-out man Bram Welten were always in position. Coming under the flamme rouge Welten timed his move to the front perfectly and with Van Uden locked into his wheel, the Team Picnic PostNL commanded the head of the peloton around the tight and twisting finale. With the road straightening up at around 250 metres to go, Van Uden launched from Welten’s wheel and didn’t look back – powering to the line to take a brilliant Giro d’Italia stage win with the team; on his Grand Tour debut no less. Jubilant scenes at the finish highlighted how much the win meant to all of the riders, who embraced each other with joy; a fine reward for everyone in the team’s hard work.

After the stage a delighted Van Uden expressed: “I didn’t do it alone today, we did it with the whole team. All the people, all the staff back at our HQ – they did super work. I didn’t have to take any wind until 200 metres to go. I know I have a good long sprint so just went all-out for it and gave it everything I had to the line. We knew that this season we’ve done a good job with the lead-outs but missed that final bit. In Türkiye last week the boys did a good job and I know that I just have to follow Bram and them. The whole team did a super good job today; I’m just really happy to give them something back to them. I know the boys and the team really believe in me, and sometimes I have to find that belief myself a little bit, but this helps. Everyone from the team does a really good job helping me believe in myself and now it pays off.”

Team Picnic PostNL coach Matt Winston added: “I think we came into this race in a good way as a group and we ticked off the first stages in Albania really well. The guys were on it today from the start and knew it was a good opportunity for us. They fully believed in Casper and gave everything towards it and you could see there in the final that they did such a good job. I’m super proud of how they rode and the whole team. It’s a really nice victory for us and well deserved for the entire team.”