Alessandro Covi's brave attempt in the final sprint " but had really fast riders ahead and probably couldn’t do better"

Alessandro Covi stuns with a fourth-place finish in the first stage of Tour Down Under, going head-to-head with top riders like Phil Bauhaus, Caleb Ewan, and Michael Matthews.

“Yesterday I crashed but, fortunately, I’m fine,” he said after the race. He continues, “I’m only sorry for having lost important seconds from the point of view of the General. Losing the possibility of achieving a goal, you immediately have to think about how to do better in another way and, therefore, how to play your chances for a stage win.”

His team's strategy was centred on climbers, which meant no spots for sprinters. Nevertheless, Covi still decided to attempt the final sprint. “Not having pure sprinters in the team here, today I tried, having also already wasted some energy to win the intermediate GPM, but I had really fast riders ahead of me and I probably couldn’t do better.”

He's not a rider to be underestimated, as today's performance has shown. He'll keep his sights set on stage wins and assist his team in their general classification goals in the upcoming stages. “The condition is good, so in the next few days we’ll see how we go and aim for a few stages and the General Classification with my teammates,” concluded Covi.