After a single day racing in pink, Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep) may have lost the maglia rosa of Giro d’Italia leader to Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin), but the maglia rossa of Giro points leader remains firmly in the German’s grasp.
With back-to-back stage wins in the Netherlands and 106 points to his name, Kittel is already a whopping 26 points ahead Dutchman Maarten Tjallingi (LottoNL-Jumbo), whilst Elia Viviani (Team Sky) is a distant third at 53.
The maglia rosa, though, is no longer in the German sprinter’s power, and unlike Dumoulin, Kittel has no chance of a second spell in lead this year, given he lost over eight minutes by the finish of stage 4.
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Already in trouble on the first of Tuesday’s two third category climbs, Kittel told reporters that he had relinquished his hold on the overall lead for good, some 25 kilometres from the line.
When the third, unclassified climb with its viciously tough final ramps hove into view, therefore, Kittel instantly opted to take things calmly rather than engage in a futile battle for what was already clearly lost.
The maglia rossa of points leader, though already Kittel’s since stage 2, remains the German’s. And at the stage 4 finish, the German looked tired when he crossed the line, but by no means out for the count. As Kittel said alter, there could well be more victories in the days to come.
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