Four-time Giro d'Italia Women winner Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) blitzed the stage 4 mountain time trial of the 2026 race, covering the 12.7km course in 31:38 for a dominant win.
World time trial champion Marlen Reusser (Movistar) finished in second place, 1:04 minutes slower than Van der Breggen. Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) took third place, another six seconds down.
The stage results are reflected in the new look GC, with Van der Breggen exchanging the maglia azzurra for the maglia rosa of the overall leader and going into stage 5 with a buffer of more than a minute over all of her close rivals.
"I really did not expect this. It’s incredible [to wear the maglia rosa again], I’m really happy with it. I worked really hard the last two years to get to this point again, and winning in this way means a lot to me," said Van der Breggen after the stage.
She will have to defend her jersey immediately on Wednesday's stage 5, with a 146km day through the Dolomites with two first-category and two third-category climbs set to bring more GC action
"Getting it [the maglia rosa] is one thing, and then wearing it is another. It started raining now, and it will rain in the upcoming stages as well. Obviously, my legs are feeling okay, but tomorrow will be a really difficult stage with technical downhills, even more when it’s raining. But I’m looking forward to it, and I am confident my team can help me a lot."
Van der Breggen back in the pink jersey, 11 years after winning her first overall title at the Giro (Image credit: Getty Images)
How it unfolded
From the start in Belluno, the first 5.6km to the intermediate timing point in Caleipo were partly flat, partly slightly uphill, but then the climb to Nevegal came with a vengeance, starting with a 4.2km stretch at an average gradient of 10.4%.
The next 1.5 kilometres were less steep at around 6%, followed by one kilometre that was almost entirely flat, before the last 500m to the finish was climbed at 6.1% again. The parcours was almost identical to that used in the 2011 men’s Giro d’Italia.
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The first rider to set a benchmark time was Becky Storrie (Picnic PostNL), who stopped the clock after 35:57. Her time was beaten by Valentina Venerucci (Aromitalia Vaiano), and the rider from San Marino stayed in the hot seat for almost an hour.
Solène Muller (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93) took another 52 seconds off the best time with a 34:37. Nadia Gontova (Liv AlUla Jayco) was the next to improve on that in 34:22, but only seconds later, Urška Žigart (AG Insurance-Soudal) finished in 33:32 to take the lead.
Žigart’s intermediate time had been beaten by Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset (Uno-X Mobility) by two seconds, but the Norwegian lost over a minute on the climb to finish in 34:43. Reusser had been slower than Žigart on the first part but more than made up for it on the climb, stopping the clock at 32:42 for the new best time, 50 seconds faster than the Slovenian.
ITT World Champion Marlen Reusser during stage 4 (Image credit: Getty Images)
Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek) finished in 33:33, moving up to tenth place overall and into the white best young rider's jersey. Monica Trinca Colonel (Liv AlUla Jayco) then beat the best intermediate time, but also couldn’t match Reusser’s climbing pace and finished 27 seconds down. Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM) was five seconds faster than Trinca Colonel with a time of 33:04.
Femke de Vries (Visma-Lease a Bike) set a time of 33:17 and was beaten by Lauren Dickson by one second. Vollering beat Reusser’s intermediate time by six seconds and was still virtually leading at the flamme rouge, but lost time on the last kilometre to finish in 32:48, six seconds slower than Reusser. Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek) clocked a 33:50.
Vollering during stage 4 (Image credit: Getty Images)
Van der Breggen, meanwhile, had pulverised Trinca Colonel’s intermediate time, going 24 seconds faster, and kept her pace on the climb to finish over a minute ahead of everyone else, winning the time trial in 31:38.
Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) was faster than Vollering and Reusser at the intermediate time but lost ground on the climb, finishing in 33:29 for eighth place. Three-stage winner Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) brought up the rear wearing the maglia rosa, but she was never in the mix for the stage, finishing more than nine minutes behind.
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.
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