Ecuadorian rider Richard Carapaz (Movistar Team) bounced back from disappointment on stage 3 to win the fourth stage of the Giro d’Italia in Frascati. Carapaz survived a pile-up and jumped away from a select group with 500 metres to go to take the win.
Today’s marathon 235-kilometre stage from Orbetello to Frascati was marred by a big crash with five kilometres to go, and it seemed it would be a 40-man peloton which would contest the the 2km, 4% finishing slope. However, another crash into a roundabout further split the lead group.
Carapaz was amongst the thirteen-rider lead group to avoid getting caught up in both crashes and he waited for the last 500 metres to launch his move. The 25 year-old did just enough to hold off fast men Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) and Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) for the second Giro stage win of his career.
Primož Roglič (Team Jumbo Visma) held on to the maglia rosa and leads Sion Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) by 35”. Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) however lost over four minutes to Roglič, afer crashing in the pile up with five kilometres remaining and is now 4’30” down on GC.
Richard Carapaz: “I’m just so emotional at this moment! I just can’t feel happier. I had a different mentality heading into today’s stage. It was such an unlucky finished yesterday. I just wanted to turn back the clock today, start from zero. And that’s how it happened. We knew that such a long stage, with many little ascents, would suit us a bit better, but I wasn’t really thinking about contesting the victory, never mind taking it. Our team’s strategy today was just staying with the top contenders and having all team-mates taking care of Mikel and myself. Sadly, that crash split the bunch, Mikel and other team-mates were also involved later on, and the team told me to stay there at the front and give it a try if I could.
“I knew there were some fast legs into that group, yet I sought for my chance. With 600 meters to go, I saw an opportunity to launch a move that could stick, jumped away with my everything, and saw that I had a good distance, even if I had to push myself over the limit in the end because Ewan was coming back. It’s such an emotional day for me, even more so after what we had to endure yesterday, following all the efforts in the last few months to come here in good condition. I’m now just thinking about everyone who supports us, me and the team, my loving family, my team, my country. I’m just so happy.”
