Giro Rosa: Borghesi wins stage 4 from the breakaway

Letizia Borghesi (Aromitalia-Basso Bikes-Vaiano) won stage 4 of the Giro d'Italia Internazionale Femminile. Having attacked at km 38, Borghesi was the quickest in the sprint of a three-rider breakaway, beating Nadia Quagliotto (Alé Cipollini) and Chiara Perini (BePink).

Marianne Vos (CCC-Liv) brought home the peloton 42 seconds later, meaning that Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) defended her maglia rosa ahead of tomorrow's mountain stage to the Lago di Cancano.

"I had a difficult season last year, changing the team gave me new motivation," said Borghesi after the finish. "It is a hard race with many difficult days, you have to make many sacrifices, so it is important to stay fresh mentally. I never gave up today. It is incredible to win like that."

How it happened

Stage 4, 100.1 km from Lissone to Carate Brianza, was the flattest stage of the Giro Rosa so far. The rolling hills north of Milan still presented some difficulties for the riders, but the gradients were hardly ever steep.

Many riders tried to get into the breakaway, leading to a hectic and fast-paced opening hour. A first attempt by Simona Frapporti (BePink), Kseniya Dobrynina (Servetto-Piumate-Beltrami TSA), and Birgitte Krogsgaard Andersen (Team Virtu Cycling) was joined by Carmela Cipriani (Aromitalia-Basso Bikes-Vaiano) and the WNT-Rotor duo of Erica Magnaldi and Lara Vieceli, but they never had a big gap and were caught again after 19 km.

Movistar Team's Aude Biannic was the next rider to give it a try, but her attack did not last long, either. Eventually it was Borghesi, Perini, and Anouska Koster (Team Virtu Cycling) who got away after 38 km. Koster was dropped by the two Italians after a few kilometres, leaving a duo at the front.

Quagliotto attacked solo from the peloton to bridge to the front, reaching Borghesi and Perini halfway through the stage while the peloton took it easy behind, allowing the gap to go out to 3:40 minutes and putting Quagliotto in the virtual leader's jersey.

When Borghesi led the break through the intermediate sprint in Parà with just under 30 km to go, their advantage had grown to 4:40 minutes as no team was willing to take responsibility for the chase with the hard mountain stages coming up.

Quagliotto tried to shake off her two companions on the category three climb of Besana in Brianza, cresting with 13.6 km to go. But Borghesi and Perini could stay with the Alé Cipollini rider to the top, and the trio headed for the finish together.

The peloton started to chase in earnest in the final as Canyon-SRAM, WNT-Rotor, and Mitchelton increased the pace. But when the breakaway still had 2:23 minutes at the five-kilometre mark, it was clear that stage 4 would see the first Italian stage winner of this year's Giro Rosa.

Borghesi launched an attack with 3.8 km to go but did not get away. In the streets of Carate Brianza, there was a rise until 250 metres to go, after which Quagliotto launched the sprint. Borghesi held on and came around Quagliotto on the final metres, squeezing by to win the stage by a few centimetres as Quagliotto sat up to celebrate what she thought was the stage victory.

Vos extended her lead in the points classification but lost the mountain jersey to Sofie De Vuyst (Parkhotel Valkenburg) who took the remaining points on the only classified climb of the day. There were no changes in the general classification, Niewiadoma still holds a 20-second lead over Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Bigla) in second place with Vos in third place at 25 seconds. 

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