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Clara Emond (EF-Oatly-Cannondale) won stage 4 of the Giro d’Italia Women, 17 seconds ahead of Soraya Paladin (Canyon-SRAM) and 20 seconds ahead of Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-Suez).
The Canadian had gone on the chase after the early breakaway together with Tota Magalhães (BePink-Bongioanni) with more than 90km to the finish. They reached the front group with 81km to go, and Emond dropped her four companions on the climb through San Marino with 47km to go to continue solo.
Going into the final 20km with a gap of 1:38 minutes on a chase group of around 15 riders, Emond paced herself on the climb to Urbino and could enjoy the final climb through the medieval town safe in the knowledge that she would win the stage.
In the peloton, Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) tried to gain time on overall leader Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) on the last kilometre, but the maglia rosa fought back and crossed the line ahead of her rival, 1:08 minutes down on the stage winner.
“The first stages didn’t go how we wanted, so today the goal was to be super aggressive and bounce back. I took a chance at the beginning, I kept attacking, and at some point, it went. I knew that if I would go with a short advantage in the climb, I could hold on, but I thought that they would catch me at some point, but they never did,” said Emond, proud of her first-ever professional win.
“I really started to believe in it in the last climb, and it feels really special to have my first…
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