(Reuters) -Dutchman Casper van Uden of Team Picnic-PostNL sprang a surprise to win stage four of the Giro d'Italia on Tuesday, holding off compatriots Olav Kooij and Maikel Zijlaard in a tense sprint finish.
The stage, a flat 189-km ride from Alberobello to Lecce and the first stage this year to be held in Italy, began with a gutsy attack by Francisco Munoz of Polti VisitMalta.
Munoz sped away from the peloton in the first few kilometres and persevered on his own for over 130km, but the Spaniard was reeled in with 56km to go and a bunch sprint became all but inevitable.
Lidl-Trek's Mads Pedersen, who reclaimed the pink jersey with a sprint win in stage three on Sunday, had a challenging finish as he was slowed down by a crash which also took out teammate Kragh Andersen - one of his leadout riders.
However, the Dane steadily worked his way to the front with the help of his team and was able to clinch a fourth-placed finish to comfortably retain the leader's jersey.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris)
