Giro Rosa: D'Hoore doubles up in Piacenza

Jolien D'hoore (Mitchelton-Scott) was fastest to the line again, winning stage 4 of the Giro d'Italia Internazionale Femminile in Piacenza. Marta Bastianelli (Alé Cipollini) finished second, as Lotta Lepistö (Cervélo-Bigla) rounded out the podium. Leah Kirchmann (Team Sunweb) stayed safe in the peloton, finished fifth, and defended the leader's jersey.

It was another hot and humid day that greeted the riders as they rolled out on the 109-kilometre stage starting and finishing in Piacenza. Although there was only one classified climb, the stage was not flat as it took in the rolling terrain in the foothills of the Apennines. Despite that, a mass sprint was still expected.

The start was hectic as the small Italian teams in particular were keen to show themselves. Kseniya Dobrynina (Servetto-Stradalli Cycle-Alurecycling) was the first rider to get away, but was caught again soon. The next to attack came from Elena Franchi (Conceria Zabri-Fanini) who built a half-minute gap, but she was reeled in after the intermediate sprint after 48.8 km.

The strongest riders increased the pace on the climb to Romola where Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle High5) won the mountain sprint after 53 km to take over the green mountain jersey. The peloton split on the descent, but came back together after 70km.

The rest of the stage lacked any difficulties as it was all downhill or flat to the finish. Olena Pavlukhina (BTC City Ljubljana) was unfazed by this and attacked solo, increasing her advantage to 1:10 with less than 25km to go. Several riders tried to bridge to Pavlukhina, but did not succeed.

This made the sprinters' teams put the hammer down. They quickly reduced the gap and caught the Azerbaijan rider with 9km to go. There was a crash with 8km to go that split the peloton into several groups, but the groups came together at the five-kilometre mark.

One day after her stage win in Corbetta, D'hoore was the strongest again in the streets of Piacenza, winning the sprint about a bike length ahead of Bastianelli and Lepistö.

D'hoore was one of the riders dropped on the Romola climb, she said after the finish. "I never panicked as there was still a long way to the finish. I just kept riding, and we got back eventually. In the last corner, I got boxed in and had to come from the back again, so I already did a sprint to get in position again. I was not really fresh any more when I started my actual sprint, but it was enough to win."

The Giro Rosa continues with stage 5 around Omegna on Tuesday. The 122.6-kilometre stage should see the climbers come to the fore as it includes a category 2 climb cresting with about 32 km to go.

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