Lhe 4th stage of the Giro this Tuesday will link Acqui Terme to Andora after 190 km. Along the way, the peloton will climb Colle Melogno (8 km at 5%). The route will take part of the Milan-Sanremo route in the finale, including the Capo Mele 3 km from the finish.
The stage thread
The day after his stage victory, Tim Merlier has a new opportunity to shine in Italy. With its rather flat profile, this 4th stage should appeal to sprinters. The weather, however, is more gloomy since the runners left in the rain.
Very quickly, Fransico Munoz (Team Polti Kometa) went to the front, followed by Lilian Calmejane (Intermarché-Wanty), Stefan De Bod (EF-Education Easypost) and Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers). Today’s breakaway formed and gained more than a minute’s lead in ten kilometers. But the peloton remains on its guard by not giving the quartet too much room. Ganna decided to get up to take his place in the peloton, leaving only three men in front.
With the scarecrow Ganna no longer at the front, the breakaway was immediately entitled to more freedom and took a lead of more than five minutes. Two withdrawals were noted this Tuesday: Bram Welten (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) did not start due to illness and Torstein Traeen (Bahrain Victorious) who threw in the towel at the start of the stage.
The intermediate sprint was not contested by the leading trio, where Munoz took the lead. On the other hand, behind, Tim Merlier did the right thing by finishing 5th, enough to take a little lead at the top of the points classification over Jonathan Milan. At 105 km from the finish, the peloton regained some time on the breakaway, which then had a lead of 4 minutes and 30 minutes.
At the top of Colle Melogno, Calmejane took the points for the best climber classification. He will therefore wear the distinctive jersey on Wednesday during the 5th stage, since he is second behind Tadej Pogacar, wearer of the pink jersey. This ascent, in the fog, stretched the peloton which Fabio Jakobsen (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) let go. He points at a minute, but knew how to come back a few kilometers further. The descent reduced the breakaway lead to 3min30.
68 km from the finish, the rain intensifies, making the course and the descent particularly tricky. And unsurprisingly, a big fall occurred, notably bringing down Ben O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty). The Eritrean is visibly affected, but wants to start again… before falling less than five kilometers further and finally giving up.
Little by little, the peloton began to reduce the gap on the two breakaways of the day. 16 kilometers from the finish, the breakaway only had a lead of 34 seconds.
At the front, Munoz and De Bod let go of Calmejane who found the peloton, now 2min30 behind the breakaway duo. The last descent caused several breaks in the peloton. Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma-Lease a Bike) took a bonus second.
