Stage 4 of Giro d’Italia 2024 took the riders from Acqui Terme to Marina di Andora located in the Liguria part of the Italian Riviera. Acqui Terme is known for its healing hot sulphur springs. The 190-kilometer route included one Category 3 climb mid-stage and was expected to culminate in a sprinter battle across the finish line.

A four-man group escaped from the main peloton shortly after the start of the stage and quickly established a lead. The group featured Francisco Munoz (Team Polti Kometa), Filippo Ganna (Ineos-Grenadiers), Stefan de Bod (EF Education-EasyPost-Cannondale), and Lilian Calmejane (Intermarche-Wanty) who was once again showing great initiative in the early part of this year’s Giro.

The peloton was not willing to let the quartet extend their lead because of the presence of Ganna in the group. He was deemed too powerful a rider to hand a significant time advantage. Ganna, therefore, fell back to the main peloton and the remaining three riders continued their breakaway. The trio built a lead of approximately five minutes.

In the main peloton the Lidl-Trek and Visma-Lease a Bike teams were in control at the front and set a fast-rolling pace to keep the breakaway trio on a reasonably tight leash.

Team Movistar sprinter Fernando Gaviria was finding it hard to keep up with the peloton on the Colle del Melogno climb (category 3; 7.5 km; 4.8%). Surprisingly, Romain Bardet (Team DSM-Firmenich) was also spotted as part of the rearview action.

Stage 1 winner Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos-Grenadiers) crashed with Ethan Vernon (Team PremierTech) with 86 kilometers left of today’s stage. 

Lidl-Trek continued to join forces with Team Visma-Lease a Bike at the front of the main peloton to keep the breakaway trio within a manageable distance. With 75 kilometers left of stage 4, the leaders had an advantage of 03:35 minutes.

Breakaway-participant Calmejane decided to wait for the chasing peloton.

A crash occurred on the wet roads with 68 kilometers remaining. The crash brought down riders from EF Education-EasyPost, Movistar, Intermarche-Wanty, and AG2R Mondiale.

Forty kilometers remained and the front duo now had a lead of two minutes. With twenty kilometers left of today’s stage 4 their lead was down to one minute thanks to the hard work from the Lidl-Trek guys at the front of the chasing peloton.

Munoz and De Bod were caught with 4.5 kilometers left of the stage.

Filippo Ganna launched an attack shortly thereafter for his Ineos-Grenadiers team. Wow what an incredible speed from the Italian fastman. Danny van Poppel (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Andrea Pasqualon (Bahrain-Victorious) tried their luck too.

Pasqualon and van Poppel were caught. Filippo Fiorelli launched a counterattack. 

Ganna fought hard but was caught shortly from the finish line.

Olav Kooij (Visma – Lease a Bike) and Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) launched their sprints. 

Milan proved the fastest man on the day and is the winner of stage 4 of Giro d’Italia 2024. Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Kaden Groves finished second, while Phil Bauhaus completed the stage podium for Bahrain-Victorious. Kooij finished fourth and yesterday’s stage winner Tim Merlier was fifth across the finish line.

In the General Classification Pogacar leads Giro d’Italia 2024 ahead of Geraint Thomas (Ineos-Grenadiers).

“Winning today is a very special sensation for me today. Also because my parents are here with me. We caught Filippo Ganna with 900 meters to go and his acceleration also helped us in a way. My teammate helped me out in the final and we just had to play our cards right,” Milan explained to Roadcycling.com following the stage.

Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for complete race coverage from Giro d’Italia 2024.

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