Far and near. A few car lengths in Agrigento and a few millimeters in Villa Franca Tirrena. The result was the same for Peter Sagan at the Giro d'Italia in Bora-Hansgrohe. The reaction is the same.

He finished second to Groupama-FDJ sprinter Arnaud Demare on the fourth stage of the Giro d'Italia, and his series of maddening near-misses continued, but the Slovakian gracefully endured defeat on the Tyrrhenian coast of Sicily.

"I've finished second more often than first in my career," Sagan joked as he sat in the RAI TV booth behind the podium.

"But that's how sprints are: sometimes you win by an inch, sometimes you lose by an inch. I have nothing to say. Me and the team did our best. They did a lot of work on the climbs and in the end we reached the finish with a lot of sprinters like Elia Viviani and Demare."

Incidentally, Sagan's 113 wins are more than his 105 second-place finishes in the pros. In fact, when he crossed the finish line at Lungomare Cristoforo Colombo on Tuesday, it looked as if he had won his 114th race, his first victory in 454 days since last year's Tour de France.

Sagan's Bora-Hansgrohe team was looking to eliminate the most dangerous riders from the peloton on the Category 3 Portella Mandrazzi climb midway through the 140km stage from Catania. We knew Bora was going to push on the mid-stage climb," said Michael Matthews (Sunweb), who finished seventh in the stage."

Thanks to Matteo Fabro's pacemaking, Bora-Hansgrohe managed to push Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) and Alvaro Hodeg (Deceuninck-Quick Step) out of the back of the peloton, but there were still many sprinters at the finish sprinters remained at the finish.

Sagan marked former Liquigas teammate Elia Viviani (Cofidis) with a few kilometers to go and tried to win with 200 meters to go, but Demare and Davide Ballerini (Deceuninck-Quickstep) lined up and the three riders almost simultaneously The three riders ran across the finish line almost in unison.

After a lengthy investigation of the photo finish, the commissaires awarded Demare the stage win, with Sagan finishing second ahead of Ballerini.

"In the end, second or third, second is fine, it's the fourth stage," Sagan said. Sagan, who was disappointed to give up the green jersey to Sam Bennett in the Tour de France, seemed to be getting used to his task in his Giro debut.

Thanks to his two second-place finishes in Sicily, Sagan has moved into the lead in the points standings.

Given his ability to handle any terrain, the classification goals should inevitably become clearer as the race moves through southern Italy in the remaining week, but the 30-year-old Sagan's immediate focus is to finish first before the Giro ends.

Sagan shrugged when told on RAI's analysis program "Processo alla Tappa" that sooner or later luck will turn up." Luck, well, we'll see if we can find it," he said.