Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) won stage 4 of the Giro d'Italia that finished atop the 11.2km climb to Pianezze, winning by 25 seconds from reigning champion Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) and new race leader Marlen Reusser (Movistar).
The 24-year-old Australian climber followed Reusser's acceleration from a large lead group with 2.8km to go. She went solo on the attack with 1.7km to go on the first-category ascent to leave Reusser, Longo Borghini, and Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-Sram Zondacrypto) behind.
Gigante raised her left arm on the finish line as she took the biggest victory of her career so far. 25 seconds later, Longo Borghini outsprinted Reusser for second place, but the Swiss rider is now back in the maglia rosa of race leader.
She leads Longo Borghini by 16 seconds while Gigante moved up to third place overall, 34 seconds down.
"I'm really in shock. I knew I was riding quite strongly, and I knew I had an amazing team. We saw that already at the previous races like the Tour de Suisse and also in stage 2," Gigante said after the stage.
"But to come away with the stage win after such great teamwork all week is just beyond my dreams, really. I'm coming back from a big surgery. I had six months off after iliac artery endofibrosis, and then I dislocated my shoulder just as I was coming back, so it's been a long time.
"This is by far my biggest win, especially in Europe, so I'm just so grateful to my team for always believing in me, not just this week, but ever since I joined the team. I just love the team, so thank you, AG Insurance-Soudal."
Elisa Longo Borghini and Marlen Reusser coming to the line in second and third (Image credit: Shutterstock)
On top of the stage victory, the Australian climber has also moved into the blue mountain jersey. She credited her directeur sportif, Dani Christmas, for helping her win the stage.
"Dani was amazing on the radio. She was telling me, 'Stay calm, stay calm'. Marlen attacked from the bottom, and we had a gap. I could have spent a lot of energy there, but Dani just said, 'Wait, wait,'" she said.
"We also had Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, Urška Zigart, and Lore De Schepper all riding so strongly, so we wanted to use those numbers. I tried to stay patient, which is not how I normally ride!
"When I saw Marlen go, I was feeling good, and Elisa and Antonia started to drop. I knew I was on a good day. I really thought they were going to catch me. I know you're not meant to look back, but I kept looking back because it just seemed too good to be true."
How it unfolded
At 142km, stage 4 was the longest of the race so far. Starting in Castello Tesino, it brought a continuous up-and-down run through the Alpine foothills in the province of Belluno before reaching the rolling Prosecco vineyards west of Vittorio Veneto in the second half of the stage.
The final 11.2km featured a climb to the hilltop village of Pianezze high above Valdobbiadene, the toughest challenge of the race so far.
The break of the day formed after 30km when stage 3 winner Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) jumped across to Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ), Alessia Vigilia (FDJ-Suez), and Lieke Nooijen (Visma-Lease A Bike), who had attacked just before.
The riders sped through the high mountains for the first time in this year's Giro (Image credit: Getty Images)
The four riders’ advantage fluctuated between two and three-and-a-half minutes, but halfway up the climb of Santo Stefano that preceded the finishing climb to Pianezze, Movistar had worked to reduce the gap to 1:13 minutes.
Vigilia attacked on the last kilometre of the climb to go solo with 15.5km to go, cresting the top 21 seconds ahead of her former companions and 43 seconds ahead of the peloton. Despite her efforts, she was caught on the first kilometre of the Pianezze climb as Liane Lippert (Movistar) dug deep to set up Reusser’s attack.
When Lippert was done, Reusser accelerated with 9.3km to go, and Gigante was the only rider who could follow her right away. Longo Borghini, Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck), and Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) had to leave a gap at first, but quickly came back to the leaders.
Anna van der Breggen leads the peloton up the taxing closing climb on stage 4 (Image credit: Getty Images)
Reusser did not push on, and the size of the group grew to about 20 riders again on the climb with its steady gradients around 7%.
7.4km from the finish, Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) came to the front and set the pace, reducing the group to around a dozen riders. She held at the front for kilometre after kilometre, even with no teammates in the group.
When Reusser accelerated again with 2.8km to go, only Longo Borghini, Niedermaier, Gigante, and Barbara Malcotti (Human Powered Health) could stay with her, with the group shattering and Van der Breggen quickly losing ground.
Malcotti lost contact 2.4km from the finish, and Niedermaier started to struggle just before the 2km mark. When Reusser put the pressure on with 1.8km to go, Niedermaier had to let go, and when Longo Borghini was gapped after a hairpin, Gigante launched her stage-winning attack to drop Reusser as well.
Reusser pulls the select group of contenders up towards the finish (Image credit: Getty Images)
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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