Van den Berg shines in France, while Adam Rafferty wins in Giro Next Gen, where Widar loses leader's jersey

After Widar dealt a significant blow to the GC with a fine stage win on Tuesday in stage three, the Belgian's leader's jersey was not in danger a day later in the fourth stage, which Seth Dunwoody won. Day five would be tricky, with the tough Passo del Penice (12.8 kilometers at 6.7%) halfway through. After that climb, there were a few tricky hills, but the last 25 kilometers were flat again.

Reason enough for three riders to break away from the start, but the peloton caught up with them again. In the end, a group of eight was accepted by the peloton. Among them was Federico Savino, the Italian rider from the Soudal Quick-Step development team. On the Passo del Penice, they had a lead of one and a half minutes on the pack, with two chasers dangling behind.

On the descent, the breakaway riders were caught, and the race exploded. A new leading group of eleven riders broke away, including Tuckwell from the Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe development team. The Australian was in third place in the GC, 27 seconds behind Widar. The breakaway group came down with a half-minute lead but later extended it to a minute and a half.

It was already clear that it was a very chaotic race. At 46 kilometers, we saw several accelerations in the group with the pink jersey. UAE rider Adrià Pericas accelerated on the flat, with Red Bull talent Lorenzo Finn quickly following. Widar also had to go, but the young Belgian was already far ahead of the finish line without any teammates. The gap remained around a minute and a half for a long time, which meant that Widar would lose his leader's jersey to Tuckwell.

The leading group continued to pull away, and it seemed inevitable that Widar would lose the pink jersey. However, there was already some unease at the front, as not all the leaders had their sights set on the GC. For some, it was purely about the stage win, which led to a few accelerations here and there. Widar, in turn, had a brief mechanical problem, but he was still two and a half minutes behind the eleven leaders.

The Belgian rider from Lotto saw that a teammate had dropped out of the leading group, after which Widar took several turns at the front of the peloton. In this way, he tried to keep the gap as small as possible, but with less than two and a half minutes to go, the chasing group seemed unable to close the gap.

At the front, the question was when the riders with their sights set on the stage victory would attack each other. With 7 kilometers to go, things had settled down a bit, allowing the lead group's advantage to shrink slightly. Visma Lease a Bike's Belgian rider, Tim Rex, made the first move at the front but could not get away.

Adam Rafferty did manage to get away, with Tuckwell trying to close the gap to the Jayco man. The Irishman had a powerful accelerator, which allowed him to stay ahead for a long time. So long, in fact, that he brilliantly won the stage. It was another Irish victory after Dunwoody's win the day before. Widar eventually lost his leader's jersey to Tuckwell, who gained under two minutes on the Belgian. This gives the Australian a 1.23-minute lead over Widar, who is in fourth place in the GC.

There was also racing in France on Thursday. After Raúl García Pierna (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) won Wednesday's opening time trial, the second stage was decided in a sprint the following day. A breakaway group of five tried in vain to change the outcome, and several attacks in the final phase also failed. In the sprint, the Dutchman Van den Berg was ultimately the fastest, ahead of Dorian Godon (Decathlon AG2R, second) and Sandy Dujardin (TotalEnergies, third).