Kaden Groves' long wait for a win goes on after he was squeezed out on the fourth stage of the Giro d'Italia.

The Australian sprinter has not topped the podium for 250 days, last doing so at the Vuelta d'Espana in September.

A flat 189 km stage from Alberobello to Lecce offered the prospect of breaking that drought but his Alpecin-Deceuninck team struggled to find the optimum position in a tricky finish and Groves came in sixth - later being bumped up to fifth after Max Kanter was relegated to 103rd.

Instead it was a Dutch 1-2-3 with grand tour debutant Casper van Uden (Picnic-PostNL) surprising the peloton by holding off compatriots Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Maikel Zijlaard (Tudoe Pro) in a tense finish.

Pink jersey wearer Mads Pedersen was fourth, a disappointment for the Dane who had already won two stages, but also a relief after being close to two crashes, one of which involved most of his Lidl-Trek team and the other of which took out his final lead-out man, Soren Kragh Andersen, who appeared to have badly injured his left wrist.

Pedersen's general classification lead over pre-race favourite Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was cut to seven seconds after the Slovenian picked up an intermediate sprint bonus. Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) is seven seconds further adrift.

Australia's best GC hope, Michael Storer (Tudor Pro), is ninth, 36 seconds behind Pedersen.

"It was a hectic final, especially when the rest of the day was quite easy, but the final was really something special," said Pedersen. "Wide roads and narrow roads and so on. So a stressful day in the end, but all in all it was okay, we made it. And damage control on the points, so that's good."

Tuesday's stage was the first to be held in Italy after three across the Adriatic in Albania. To the riders' relief, unlike in Rome where rain interrupted the Italian Open, the weather was fair in Puglia, in Italy's southern heel.

The stage began with a gutsy attack by Spain's Francisco Munoz (Polti VisitMalta) who raced alone for more than 130km, but he was reeled in with 56km to go leaving the stage set for the sprinters.

"I didn't do it alone – we did it with the whole team. All the boys here and all the staff here and in HQ as well. They did super work," said Van Uden, whose last win came at the ZLM Tour in June.

"I didn't have to do anything until 200m to go. I have a good sprint and went for it. We've done a really good job all season with the lead-outs.

Van Uden's victory also provides a boost to Picnic-PostNL's hopes of remaining in the WorldTour, with the Dutch team facing the prospect of relegation.

Groves should have another chance in Wednesday's fifth stage, a 151 km ride from Ceglie Messapica to Matera with a rising finish.

with agencies