Sport

Jan Polanc claims fine stage four win on Mount Etna

Bob Jungels takes the pink jersey with Geraint Thomas third in the Giro d’Italia

Jan Polanc celebrates his stage four win in the Giro D’Italia. Photograph: Allessandro Di Meo/Epa

Tue May 9 2017 - 18:18

Jan Polanc claimed a fine solo win on Mount Etna on stage four of the Giro d'Italia as Bob Jungels took the race leader's pink jersey.

Britain’s Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) finished third on the 181-kilometres route from Cefalu on Sicily to move second overall, six seconds behind Luxembourg’s Jungels.

Ireland's Phil Deignan and Sam Bennett finished the stage 56th and 182nd respectively.

Jungels became the fourth leader from four days of racing, succeeding team-mate Fernando Gaviria in the maglia rose.

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Adam Yates (Orica-Scott) was eighth to move 10 seconds behind Jungels in third overall in the three-week race, which finishes in Milan on May 28th.

Polanc (UAE Team Emirates) was part of the day’s early breakaway, which escaped after two kilometres, and he dug deep to win.

Astana's Paolo Tiralongo — a Sicilian who trains on Etna regularly — had hoped to put on a show to dedicate a victory to Michele Scarponi, who died last month.

But his attack on the early slopes of Etna was short-lived and his Danish team-mate Jesper Hansen later had a go, too, but was also soon reeled in.

Russia’s Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) did escape, but ran out of road in his pursuit of Polanc and had to settle for second on the day, 19 seconds adrift.

Sicilian Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida) finished among the general classification contenders, who sized each other up on the finishing ascent and were ultimately separated only in a sprint, 29 seconds behind Polanc.

Thomas won the sprint for the line and with it four bonus seconds.

But Jungels finished on the same time in seventh place, just enough to take the pink jersey from his Colombian team-mate Gaviria — a sprinter who was never likely to defend the jersey on Tuesday.

Welshman Thomas is sharing the Team Sky lead with Mikel Landa, who recovered to finish among the pack despite suffering a puncture inside the final 10km.

There was a moment of controversy for Team Sky as the pace increased towards the foot of the final climb. Team Sky's Diego Rosa had his jersey tugged by Javier Moreno (Bahrain Merida).

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