Sarah Gigante takes career defining Giro d’Italia mountain stage 4 victory

Australian rider, Sarah Gigante took the biggest victory of her career, winning the mountain top finish of stage four of the Giro d’Italia Women on Wednesday.

The Australian attacked a four woman leading group, including two of the pre-race favourites, with two kilometres of the 142km stage left to ride, the AG Insurance-Soudal rider putting 25 seconds into her rivals.

Marlen Reusser (Movistar) takes over the race leader’s maglia rosa after finishing in third place, while Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) was second.

Movistar had tried to dominate the final climb, but Reusser was left isolated within the opening two kilometres of the 11km ascent. At the same time Gigante had three team mates in Urška Žigart, Lore de Schepper and Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio. 

Gigante remained patient throughout, even as the group was whittled down to only four, sitting close to the front until she made her attack.

The stage victory is reward for a woman who was touted for great things when she first joined the WorldTour with Movistar in 2022. However, repeated injuries and illnesses have limited her success, and today is also a reward for the team who signed Gigante with little in the way of results.

“I’m really in shock, I knew I was riding strongly and I knew I had an amazing team, we saw that already at the Tour de Suisse and also in stage two, but to come away with a stage win after such great teamwork all day and all week is just beyond my dreams.

“I’m coming back from a big surgery, I had six months off after iliac artery endofibrosis, and then I dislocated my shoulder just as I was coming back, so it’s been a long time. I’m just so grateful to my team for always believing in me.”

The end of Wednesday’s fourth Giro d’Italia Women stage would mark the mid-point of the 2025 race, but before they got there, another mountain top finish was on the cards.

For the fourth consecutive day, the riders would tackle the longest stage of the race to date, with a 142km route between Castello Tesino and Pianezze. The race was lumpy throughout, with plenty of undulations before the first of four classified climbs came after 63.9km. While those earlier climbs would soften the legs, the final, first category ascent to Pianezze would prove decisive, with an average gradient of 7.2% over its 11.4km.

It was a frantic start, a flurry of attacks getting away and being caught, but finally, with 114km to go, stage three winner, Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) escaped and was joined by Lieke Nooijen (Visma | Lease a Bike), Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ) and Alessia Vigilia (FDJ-SUEZ).

With the race reaching the halfway point, the leaders’ advantage began to stretch out, and with 50km to go, they led by 3.40. However, on the run into each of the day’s classified climbs, it would drop, the peloton positioning itself.

With 40km of the day left to race, after the infamous, brutal Muro di Ca’del Poggio, all the GC favourites were still present and correct, overall race leader Anna Henderson (Lidl-Trek) recovering and getting back on just afterwards. 

The breakaway, meanwhile, took 2.50 into the final 25km, though once again, that began to drop, the Movistar team of stage one winner Marlen Reusser leading onto the bottom, taking more than a minute out of the lead in anticipation of the race’s finale.

Halfway up that second-to-last climb, Vigilia attacked the breakaway, dropping them conclusively, and by the time the peloton reached Valdobbiadenne, the home of Prosecco wine and the bottom of the ascent to Pianezze, only Vigilia remained off the front, though only by 30 seconds.

As the road tipped upwards, Movistar continued their work for Reusser, catching Vigilia with a group of only 10 women remaining, SD Worx’s leader, Anna van der Breggen, one of those off the back with 10km to go.

One kilometre later, Reusser was the only Movistar rider left, with just four others for company, but she eased off and the leading group grew, Van der Breggen one of those getting back into a group which now numbered around 18.

As if in defence, Van der Breggen came to the front, setting the pace as she had done at the Vuelta España Femenina, though on this occasion her effort did little to reduce the size of the group. Then, with just under three kilometres remaining, Reusser came to the front, instantly thinning the group, dropping Van der Breggen, and leaving only four women at the front.

A kilometre later, Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) attacked, the Australian instantly building her lead, with only Reusser and Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) left to chase.