"The intention was to give away the jersey" - Remco Evenepoel not disappointed to lose overall lead of the Giro d'Italia following Stage 4

Remco Evenepoel will be back in the Rainbow Jersey of world champion on tomorrow's stage 5 of the Giro d'Italia after passing on the overall lead of the race to Team DSM's Andreas Leknessund during stage 4.

“I am not sorry about that,” Evenepoel tells HLN in a post-stage interview taken immediately after climax of the stage where Aurélien Paret-Peintre took the victory, outsprinting Andreas Leknessund in the finale who was at least compensated by taking the Maglia Rosa.

“I follow at about twenty seconds and am second in the standings. That's still a good place. The intention was to give away the jersey, especially with an eye on tomorrow and the day after tomorrow," continues the Soudal - Quick-Step leader. “The feeling was very good. It was a super tough stage. But it didn't feel difficult when INEOS started to lead. I am very pleased with the feeling, happy that we managed to get through this day in hectic conditions.”

Although the Soudal - Quick-Step team found it difficult to control things early on in the day, Evenepoel isn't concerned about what some perceived to be the biggest weakness of his general classification ambitions. “As long as I'm there, it's fine. It was a super difficult opening phase, we had underestimated that.”