Jhonatan Narváez sprinted to victory on stage four of the Giro d'Italia from a reduced group in Cosenza on Tuesday, as Giulio Ciccone secured the pink jersey.
Narváez of UAE Team Emirates-XRG had the speed on the run-in to beat Orluis Aular (Movistar), as Lidl-Trek's Ciccone finished third and moved into the race lead because of bonus seconds.
Aular went off early, with 350m to go, giving Narváez the time to round him and win by a clear bike length on the line.
It marked a turnaround for UAE's fortunes in the Giro, coming days after they lost three riders in a mass crash on stage 2, including their GC hopeful Adam Yates.
There were still around 40 riders in the peloton come the finish, but that number had been thinned down brutally by the category-two climb of Cozzo Tunno, peaking around 45km from the finish, meaning none of the top-rate sprinters were able to contest victory.
It was Narváez's third stage victory at the Giro, and came months after he was seriously injured at the Tour Down Under, where he broke vertebrae.
"It's really big for me, this victory here, coming from three months training in Ecuador," Narváez said on TV post-race. "I want to send thank to my family, my wife, my team, they have been a great support this time. Obviously, this victory is also for my team-mates, they crashed on stage two, they've been working for a while to come here in good condition, and finally we take the victory today, but we were good on stage two too. I think we are happy now.
"Jan [Christen] is a great guy, he was trying to take the maglia rosa," he said of his team-mate, who sprinted to the Red Bull KM bonus seconds, and also launched a flier in the last couple of kilometres which came to nothing, but set his team-mate up. "He's a young guy, he needs to learn how to race. He did a great final, and in the end for me, it was just waiting for the sprint.
"I knew they [Movistar] worked so hard in the climb, also Ciccone was there. I think I took a really good corner, 700m to go, and in the end had the legs in the last straight."
The key point of the stage was the Cozzo Tunno climb, 14.4km at 5.9%, where Movistar put the pace on to distance all the pure sprinters in order to set themselves up best for the stage win. Among those dropped were pink jersey Guillermo Thomas Silva (XDS Astana), and winner of two stages already Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step).
Most of the riders aiming for general classification survived without worry, apart from Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) who dropped off the back of the peloton on the second-category climb. He made it back in before the finish, but his performance will give some pause for thought ahead of more significant climbing stages.
Results
Giro d'Italia 2026 stage four: Catanzaro > Cosenza (138km)
1. Jhonatan Narváez (Ecu) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in 3:08:46
2. Orluis Aular (Ven) Movistar
3. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek
4. Ben Turner (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers
5. Alessandro Pinarello (Ita) NSN Cycling
6. Afonso Eulálio (Por) Bahrain Victorious
7. Lennert Van Eetvelt (Bel) Lotto Intermarché
8. Diego Ulissi (Ita) XDS Astana
9. Andrea Raccagni Noviero (Ita) Soudal Quick-Step
10. Michael Valgren (Den) EF Education-EasyPost, all at same time
General classification after stage four
1. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Lidl-Trek, in 16:18:51
2. Jan Christen (Sui) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +4s
3. Florian Stork (Ger) Tudor
4. Egan Bernal (Col) Netcompany-Ineos, both at same time
5. Thymen Arensmen (Ned) Netcompany-Ineos, +6s
6. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, at same time
7. Lennert van Eetvelt (Bel) Lotto Intermarché, +10s
8. Enric Mas (Esp) Movistar
9. Markel Beloki (Esp) EF Education-EasyPost
10. Jan Hirt (Cze) NSN Cycling, all at same time
