Longo Borghini, Uttrup Ludwig, Spratt lose massive five minutes in GC standings - Giro d'Italia Donne

CESENA ITALY JULY 04 LR Elisa Longo Borghini of Italy and Team Trek Segafredo Silvia Persico of Italy and Valcar Travel Service Team and Amanda Spratt of Australia and Team BikeExchange Jayco cross the finishing line during the 33rd Giro dItalia Donne 2022 Stage 4 a 1209km stage from Cesena to Cesena GiroDonne UCIWWT on July 04 2022 in Cesena Italy Photo by Dario BelingheriGetty Images
Longo Borghini, Persico and Spratt cross the line on stage 4 (Image credit: Dario BelingheriGetty Images)

After three stages on Sardinia, the Giro d’Italia Donne returned to the Italian mainland for stage 4 in the hills around Cesena. The stage wasn’t expected to be as important for the general classification as it turned out to be, but many of the top GC contenders in the race lost upwards of five minutes, in part due to extreme heat with temperatures of up to 40 Celsius. 

Adding the difficulty of the stage was that the route was almost continuously up-and-down for the last 85 kilometres and wreaked havoc in the GC that had been established by the stage 1 ITT in Cagliari, where Kristen Faulkner (BikeExchange-Jayco) took the first leader's jersey - overhauled by World Champion Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo) on the two subsequent sprint stages.

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Lukas Knöfler started working in cycling communications in 2013 and has seen the inside of the scene from many angles. Having worked as press officer for teams and races and written for several online and print publications, he has been Cyclingnews’ Women’s WorldTour correspondent since 2018.