After losing her Maglia Rosa to Evie Stevens (Specialized-lululemon) the day before, Marianne Vos (Rabobank) came out fighting in the fourth stage of the Giro d’Italia Femminile, between Montecatini Terme and Montecatini Alto. The World number one, who had won the first two stages of the race, escaped the rest of the race’s favourites on the descent of the 2nd category Goraiolo climb and rode alone up the steep climb to the finish to take a solo victory.
Emma Johansson (Hitec Products-Mistral Home) was the best of Vos’ rivals, but cross the line 1’26” behind the Dutchwoman to take second place. Former world champion Tatiana Guderzo (MCipollini-Giambenini) outsprinted Maglia Rosa Stevens to take third a further seven seconds back.
“What a stage!” Vos exclaimed after the finish. “I struggled in the climb but I had a go in the descent because I knew I could make a difference.
“Was I thinking of the jersey? No,” she said. “I think the race is still long and tough and I’m taking things day by day.”
With her victory, Vos easily wiped out her 12-second deficit to Stevens, and wrested back the race lead that the American had taken the day before. She now leads Stevens by 1’31”, with third place Emma Pooley (AA Drink-Leontien.nl) 2’07” back.
The first part of the stage saw a breakaway from Olga Zabelinskaya (RusVelo), Christel Ferrier Bruneau (Hitec Products-Mistral Home), Alessandra d'Ettorre (Diadora-Pasta Zara), Lizzie Armitstead (AA Drink-Leontien.nl), Malgorzta Jasinska and Valentina Carretta (both MCipollini-Giambenini), Katie Colclough and Lisa Brennauer (both Specialized-lululemon), Adrie Visser (Netherlands), Sanne Van Passen (Rabobank) and Australian champion Amanda Spratt (Orica-GreenEdge). The eleven rider were never able to get more than 1’30” ahead however, and were caught as the climb to Goraiolo began.
As they had done the day before, Pooley and Stevens tried to escape over the top - with Pooley taking the mountain points to further secure her green jersey - but it was Vos who managed to get away on the descent and increase her lead on the climb to the finish.
A big group gets away in the Tuscan heat but the climbers come to the fore once again
From the very start of the hilly, 98km stage around Tuscany there was an attack from the unrelated Valentina (Vaiano-Tepso) and Marta Bastianelli (MCipollini-Giambenini). The two riders were not able to get far however, and the race was all together until the 30th kilometre when the eleven rider group escaped. Realising that the presence of two Specialized-lululemon riders up the road could leave Stevens a little shorthanded in the peloton however, Brennauer dropped back to her team leader leaving ten up front.
At the stage’s midway point, with 50km to go, the ten-woman group had a lead of 1’30” over the peloton but, this gradually came down and they were caught at the foot of the climb to Marlina.
Pooley and Stevens attacked together almost immediately, and managed to open up a 25-second lead over a ten-rider group that contained Vos and most of the other overall contenders. They were caught on the descent however, and Vos promptly attacked, opening up a lead of half a minute by the time she arrived at the bottom..
On the final climb to the finish, whose gradients reached 13% in places, the Dutchwoman managed to increase that margin all the way to the finish. As the chase group behind her fractured in the final kilometres, it was Swedish champion Johansson that took second place, 1’26” back, with the rest of the race's contenders scattered in the road behind her.