9th July – Stage 4: Castello Tesino – Pianezze
Stage 4 of the Giro d’Italia Women brought the first true uphill finish of the race, with a summit arrival in Pianezze after 133km of racing with the finish on top of the 11-kilometre long Valdobbiadene climb. Pfeiffer Georgi and Marta Cavalli, both involved in yesterday’s crash, took the start in Castello Tesino but were unfortunately forced to abandon early in the stage.
A four-rider breakaway formed not long after the start and quickly built a lead that extended to nearly four minutes at its biggest. In the peloton, Team Picnic PostNL’s focus was on protecting Eleonora Ciabocco, with all of our remaining riders working together to support her and keep her as fresh as possible for the finale. As the race approached the climbs in the second half of the stage, the tempo began to rise and the peloton thinned out. Up the road, Vigilia had attacked from the breakaway and crested Santo Stefano solo. The peloton brought the gap down to just 37 seconds over the top.
On descent of the penultimate climb, Santo Stefano, Ciabocco went down in a crash. She was quickly back on the bike, but her bad luck continued shortly after with a bike change, just as the peloton started the final climb of the day. With the pace unrelenting at the front and the road rising for 11km to the finish, Eleonora was unable to regain contact with the leaders. Still, she battled all the way to the line, showing resilience and determination after a difficult day. She eventually crossed the finish in 25th place, 3 minutes and 50 seconds behind stage winner Gigante.
After the stage, Ciabocco said: “It was a hard day today. Of course, we were really sad to lose Pfeiffer and Marta at the start of the stage. The first part was constantly up and down, which made it quite tough. Megan and Francesca did a great job following the attacks, and Josie supported me really well. Later on, we all came back together, which was really helpful to save some energy. On the Muro di Ca’ del Poggio, I was in the first five riders and the group split, but it came back together not long after. On the next climb, I was in a good position again, but then I crashed just before the final long climb, which was really unfortunate. I actually felt really good today, but I ended up losing time in the GC. After the bike change, Becky was with me for a bit, but in the end I was alone, so it turned into a long time trial to the finish. It was a tough day, but everyone is showing good form, so now we’re fully focused on trying to do a good sprint with Megan tomorrow.”