Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) sprinted to victory on the uphill finish of stage 4 of the Giro d’Italia, grabbing a redemptive win for his team in a ferocious reduced battle to the line after an eventful day in Italy.
The Ecuadorian beat Orluis Aular (Movistar) into second after a huge effort from the Spanish squad, whilst Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) took third – but was rewarded by moving into the maglia rosa as race leader Thomas Silva (XDS-Astana) struggled.
In the finale, Narváez’s teammate Jan Christen attempted a late flyer, which was shut down by a huge effort from Matteo Sobrero for Ciccone. Though Lidl-Trek didn’t quite grab the win, they do end the day with the pink jersey.
Narváez’s triumph was a redemptive one for several reasons, not least because of the misfortune that saw his team lose three riders in the first three stages – after already losing planned GC rider João Almeida pre-race – but it’s also his first of the year after a nasty crash at the Tour Down Under ruled him out of the spring.
“It’s really big for me, this victory here, coming from three months training in Ecuador,” he said at the finish.
“I want to say thanks to my family, my wife, my team. They’ve been a great support in this time, and obviously, this victory is also for my teammates who crashed on stage 2. They’ve been working for a while to come here in good condition – we take the victory today, but we were good before stage 2 too, so I think we are a lot happier now.
“Jan [Christen] is a great guy, he was trying to take the maglis rosa. 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,” he explained about his teammate’s late effort, which ultimately set up his victory.
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