Jonathan Milan made up for the previous stage and took the Giro stage 4 sprint

The Giro d’Italia continued with stage 4, which was again purely for sprinters. Jonathan Milan, who was second in the previous stage, was able to improve his appetite in today’s stage. He has now won the stage, beating Groves and Bauhaus in the final spurt.

A stage for the spurters this time

For the second day in a row, the Giro had a stage purely for sprinters. Today’s stage didn’t feature the crazy attack before the finish line as on the previous day, for which, by the way, Tadej Pogačar received a lot of superlatives. However, there were also some critical responses.

They raised a warning finger that the young Slovenian wasted his energy in passages where it was not necessary and reminded of the Tour de France in 2023, where he failed to defend his title because he also wasted a lot of energy. This later cost him the victory and Jonas Vingegaard took the baton.

The stage started in rainy weather and the next rider to leave the peloton was Dutchman Bram Welten. Otherwise, the stage was relatively calm, which Filippo Ganna tried to disrupt by attacking twice. But after all, he is a time trial specialist and his attacks had no chance of success. Although the one before the finish line was again bold.

About 500 metres from the finish, Ganna was caught by a speeding train of spurters, who once again raced to the finish at lightning speed.

At the finish, Jonathan Milan avenged yesterday’s defeat in the spurt to Tim Merlier, who finished 5th today. For Milan, this is the second Giro stage win of his career. Jan Hirt, like Pogačar, also finished calmly with the peloton and maintained his 8th place in the overall classification.

Stage 5 today is 178km long and marked as hilly, so expect a ripped peloton and possible breakaways again.

Giro d’Italia – Stage 4 (Acqui Terme – Marina d’Andorra, 190 km)

• 1. Jonathan Milan (It./Lidl-Trek) 4:16:03, 2. Kaden Groves (Aust./Alpecin), 3. Phil Bauhaus (Ger./Bahrain – Victoriuos), 4. Olav Kooij (Niz./Visma), 5. Tim Merlier (Belg./Soudal-Quick Step) … 48. Černý, 58. Hirt …

Overall standings

• 1. Tadej Pogačar 15:19:05
  2. Gerraint Thomas -46
  3. Daniel Felippe Martínez -47
  4. Cian Uijtdebroeks -55
  8. Hirt -1:13
  162. Cerny -43:48

Source: CyclingNews, Giro d’Italia