Andreas Leknessund survives Alpine stage to remain in fourth place at Giro d'Italia: "Being close to the GC favourites makes it a good day for us in the end"

Seven seconds is all Andreas Leknessund lost in the first mountain stage of the Giro d'Italia where the pace was high. The Team DSM rider has established himself as an official GC contender with a strong ride that sees him remain at the doors of the podium.

“It was a weird day today, with the stage being shortened and we didn’t know what to expect when we woke up this morning," the Norwegian said in a press release issued by the team at the end of the day. "We kept our motivation high, although we didn’t know how the race would unfold on the first climb. Being close to the GC favourites makes it a good day for us in the end.”

Leknessund benefited from what was a day cut by the bad weather, and ridden conservatively by the GC favourites. Moreover, the steady pace ridden up both Croix de Coeur and Crans-Montana suited the DSM's riders type of racing, and he crossed the line in 14th place, the first rider just behind the pink jersey group, losing only seven seconds.

This made for a successful day, the first in the Alps, in which Leknessund remained in the GC fight. He starts stage 14 of the race only 42 seconds down on race leader Geraint Thomas and 20 down on youth classification leader and third place João Almeida who's directly ahead of him.