Giro d'Italia - Rohan Dennis: To race in Sicily is a whole other level
May 09 2018 12:27 am CET
Photo of Rohan Dennis © Mary Cárdenas / CyclingPub.com
BMC Racing Team's Rohan Dennis survived yet another day in Pink at the Giro d'Italia, finishing safely in the front group at the end of the fourth stage.
The Australian took the leader's jersey after the second stage in Israel and held on to it the next day in order to bring the Pink to Sicily. But the first stage on Italian soil proved to be a challenge.
"The hardest stage so far," Dennis told Eurosport's Juan Antonio Flecha. "It's never easy to ride in Sicily but to race here is a whole other level."
Dennis feels ready to face the famous Etna climb, which awaits him and the rest of the peloton in stage 6 on Thursday.
"I've done every side of Etna possible. I've spent two and a half weeks here in 2016 for a training camp. It's a long climb. Not super hard but just long. It's gonna be hard to finish up there. Hopefully it's a headwind like last year, and my team will do a great job of putting me in the right position again, for sure.
"The next few days will obviously be hard like today. Tomorrow is probably a little bit more like today and Etna will be a bit of a test for GC guys on a mountain, to see where everyone's at and it will be interesting to see where I'm at against those guys."
In the general classification, Dennis keeps his advantage of one second over defending champion Tom Dumoulin.
Check out our 101st Giro d'Italia Race Guide here.
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