OFFICIAL Stage 4 Results: De Lie, Groves ABANDON!
Laurens De Jong
Hello, Giro d’Italia Gamers!
STAGE Grade: A-
I rate today’s stage an A-. I loved the scenery — we’re back in Italy, after all. That climb did what the builder intended, more than I expected. I’m throwing in a generous few points for the general classification because the standings did change. And I’m calling Jan Christen’s late attack and the ensuing chase one long and five-star sprint. The Cyclism’Actu TV highlights’ title for stage 4 is “A lot of surprises in this stage!” but I’m giving it just four stars. One star short of an A-class stage. I enjoyed it!
Route: 4/5 GC: 3/5 Tactics: 3/5 Sprint: 5/5 Surprises: 4/5
That climb was harder than I thought. A category 2 climb, 14.4 kilometers at 5.9%. I should have known better, the sprinters had no chance. In fact, even Guillermo Thomas Silva had no chance. We’ll know more hours after I write this report — but many of us thought Silva would retain his leader’s jersey. The fact that he didn’t: maybe he was feeling sick, maybe the transfer from Bulgaria hurt him, maybe he didn’t sleep. You win a grand tour in bed, is the old saying.
Teams pulling the peloton when Silva was dropped: Movistart, and Visma - Lease-a-Bike. Visma has been racing cleverly all week. Far in the back in the risky stage 1. Near the front in the risky stage 2. They’re in front again today, not to make a move, but to protect Jonas Vingegaard.
Movistar was there to make a move. They must believe in Enric Mas. That’s good to know. But other than letting us know they believe in Mas, I don’t understand the wisdom of this move. They sacrificed Lorenzo Milesi completely. The former U23 time trial world champion went deep for twenty minutes on the climb. Why on this climb? Egan Bernal was dropped, but he came back. Maybe Bernal is in trouble, but let’s find that out on Blockhaus, Friday. Why now, why here? It’s a mystery to me.
Maybe they just wanted to win the stage. If that’s the case, then I’m still puzzled. Jan Christen attacked when Movistar was still pulling, and then Mas himself chased Christen for a kilometer. That is way too many matches burned by Movistar in week 1 of the Giro d’Italia. Mas was racing for Orluis Aular, I get it, they wanted to win the stage. But didn’t Simon Yates win the 2025 Giro d’Italia by conserving energy until the last weekend? Shouldn’t Mas do the same thing? Yes is the answer to both questions.
Mas faded and I thought Christen could hold on for the win, but Matteo Sobrero proved that cycling is a team sport. He brought the peloton back for his leader Giulio Ciccone. Ciccone finished third and took the overall lead. A well executed bike race by Team Lidl-Trek. Not just these kilometers, also the Red Bull KM sprint where Ciccone earned 2 bonus seconds. He added 4 bonus seconds at the finish, and that’s his leading margin in the general classification. An Italian in the Maglia Rosa after the first day of racing in Italy. The organizers will be happy.
Our focus team was in the breakaway with our old friend Mattia Bais. He took the intermediate sprint, uncontested. There wasn’t a grand scheme behind this breakaway. None of the riders nor their teams had a stake in any of the minor competitions, and the peloton would catch them before the first KOM of the day.
Diego Pablo Sevilla did as little as possible today. He finished 162nd, fourteen minutes behind the winner. After all those days in the breakaway, he’s recovering his legs for tomorrow. Another day in the KOM jersey. His lead is 26 points, and on Wednesday there are 27 KOM points available. That is safer than it looks because second place is Nelson Oliveira — and surely, even Movistar won’t send Oliveira to the front on the first climb of the day?
Watch the final kilometers HERE.
Watch the five-minute highlights HERE.
Read the TNT Sports report HERE.
Arnaud de Lie’s abandon hurts our sprint team — Team Amalia. Kaden Groves was not on Team Amalia for some reason, but our Australian friends Team Charles, Team Hugo, Team Sam, and Team Tadej had him. The stage 1 crash cost those teams at least 100 points.
Spoiler alert: Team Amalia lost two spots in the standings, benefiting Team Grace and Team Ansel.
Groves or not, Team Sam won the stage today. It helps to have both Jhonatan Narváez and Giulio Ciccone on your team. Team Grace were second, Team Ansel took third.
Team Charles and Team Hugo finished fourth and fifth, closely together. Then it was Team Felix behind them and Team Tadej in seventh, Team Amalia in eighth.
Stage 5 starts with a category 2 climb: Monte Grande de Viggiano, almost ten kilometers at 6%. There will be plenty of action there, and I expect a non-trivial breakaway. Someone in that breakaway can even take the Maglia Rosa.
I usually pick a rider even if I’m not sure, but in this case, I can’t make up my mind. I’ll let my prediction be that there will be a breakaway, and even then I could be wrong.
For all of you: a reminder that there will be no stage reports until May 19. Once again, the organizers scheduled a grand tour in the middle of my vacation.
Standings after stage 4:
|
Rank |
Name |
Points |
WAS |
MOVES |
|
1 |
Team Sam* |
549 |
1 |
0 |
|
2 |
Team Grace* |
497 |
3 |
1 |
|
3 |
Team Ansel* |
439 |
4 |
1 |
|
4 |
Team Amalia* |
436 |
2 |
-2 |
|
5 |
Team Tadej* |
392 |
5 |
0 |
|
6 |
Team Hugo* |
324 |
6 |
0 |
|
7 |
Team Charles* |
303 |
7 |
0 |
|
8 |
Team Felix* |
214 |
8 |
0 |
Standings after stage 4 (including adults):
|
Rank |
Name |
Points |
WAS |
MOVES |
|
1 |
Team Sam* |
549 |
2 |
1 |
|
2 |
Team Craig |
514 |
1 |
-1 |
|
3 |
Team Amelia |
510 |
8 |
5 |
|
4 |
Team Grace* |
497 |
7 |
3 |
|
5 |
Team Laurens |
475 |
3 |
-2 |
|
6 |
Team Julie |
474 |
4 |
-2 |
|
7 |
Team Zach |
460 |
5 |
-2 |
|
8 |
Team Corsa |
440 |
8 |
0 |
|
9 |
Team Ansel* |
439 |
10 |
1 |
|
10 |
Team Amalia* |
436 |
6 |
-4 |
|
11 |
Team Paul |
420 |
12 |
1 |
|
12 |
Team Doug |
412 |
13 |
1 |
|
13 |
Team Jake |
410 |
15 |
2 |
|
14 |
Team Tadej* |
392 |
11 |
-3 |
|
15 |
Team Kent |
361 |
14 |
-1 |
|
16 |
Team Hugo* |
324 |
16 |
0 |
|
17 |
Team Adam |
318 |
17 |
0 |
|
18 |
Team Charles* |
303 |
18 |
0 |
|
19 |
Team Rob |
301 |
19 |
0 |
|
20 |
Team Kate |
282 |
21 |
1 |
|
21 |
Team Felix* |
214 |
22 |
1 |
|
22 |
Team Kari |
212 |
23 |
1 |
|
23 |
Team Roslyn |
203 |
20 |
-3 |
|
24 |
Team Jonwaine |
127 |
24 |
0 |
Complete breakdown of points from stage 4:
|
Name |
STAGE RESULTS |
PINK JERSEY |
PURPLE JERSEY |
BLUE JERSEY |
WHITE JERSEY |
COMBATIVE |
POINTS/CLASS |
TOTAL |
PREVIOUS |
CUM. TOTAL |
|
Team Amalia* |
25 |
21 |
11 |
2 |
4 |
0 |
38 |
63 |
373 |
436 |
|
Team Ansel* |
64 |
31 |
10 |
2 |
4 |
0 |
47 |
111 |
328 |
439 |
|
Team Charles* |
67 |
18 |
7 |
2 |
4 |
0 |
31 |
98 |
205 |
303 |
|
Team Felix* |
66 |
12 |
0 |
2 |
5 |
0 |
19 |
85 |
129 |
214 |
|
Team Grace* |
82 |
28 |
10 |
2 |
5 |
0 |
45 |
127 |
370 |
497 |
|
Team Hugo* |
54 |
31 |
5 |
2 |
4 |
0 |
42 |
96 |
228 |
324 |
|
Team Sam* |
93 |
28 |
15 |
2 |
4 |
0 |
49 |
142 |
407 |
549 |
|
Team Tadej* |
53 |
5 |
6 |
2 |
5 |
0 |
18 |
71 |
321 |
392 |
Complete breakdown of points from stage 4 (including adults):
|
Team Adam |
69 |
28 |
5 |
2 |
4 |
0 |
39 |
108 |
210 |
318 |
|
Team Amalia* |
25 |
21 |
11 |
2 |
4 |
0 |
38 |
63 |
373 |
436 |
|
Team Amelia |
101 |
41 |
7 |
2 |
12 |
0 |
62 |
163 |
347 |
510 |
|
Team Ansel* |
64 |
31 |
10 |
2 |
4 |
0 |
47 |
111 |
328 |
439 |
|
Team Charles* |
67 |
18 |
7 |
2 |
4 |
0 |
31 |
98 |
205 |
303 |
|
Team Corsa |
58 |
23 |
10 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
35 |
93 |
347 |
440 |
|
Team Craig |
35 |
28 |
12 |
2 |
5 |
0 |
47 |
82 |
432 |
514 |
|
Team Doug |
64 |
31 |
7 |
2 |
5 |
0 |
45 |
109 |
303 |
412 |
|
Team Felix* |
66 |
12 |
0 |
2 |
5 |
0 |
19 |
85 |
129 |
214 |
|
Team Grace* |
82 |
28 |
10 |
2 |
5 |
0 |
45 |
127 |
370 |
497 |
|
Team Hugo* |
54 |
31 |
5 |
2 |
4 |
0 |
42 |
96 |
228 |
324 |
|
Team Jake |
98 |
34 |
5 |
2 |
9 |
0 |
50 |
148 |
262 |
410 |
|
Team Jonwaine |
47 |
7 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
9 |
56 |
71 |
127 |
|
Team Julie |
34 |
27 |
11 |
2 |
9 |
0 |
49 |
83 |
391 |
474 |
|
Team Kari |
63 |
20 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
23 |
86 |
126 |
212 |
|
Team Kate |
63 |
28 |
1 |
2 |
4 |
0 |
35 |
98 |
184 |
282 |
|
Team Kent |
38 |
21 |
6 |
2 |
4 |
0 |
33 |
71 |
290 |
361 |
|
Team Laurens |
27 |
30 |
11 |
2 |
9 |
0 |
52 |
79 |
396 |
475 |
|
Team Paul |
59 |
28 |
10 |
2 |
4 |
0 |
44 |
103 |
317 |
420 |
|
Team Rob |
64 |
26 |
5 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
33 |
97 |
204 |
301 |
|
Team Roslyn |
9 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
11 |
192 |
203 |
|
Team Sam* |
93 |
28 |
15 |
2 |
4 |
0 |
49 |
142 |
407 |
549 |
|
Team Tadej* |
53 |
5 |
6 |
2 |
5 |
0 |
18 |
71 |
321 |
392 |
|
Team Zach |
44 |
22 |
12 |
2 |
4 |
0 |
40 |
84 |
376 |
460 |
-Laurens.