Stage 4

The road

At the start

The long day to Frascati

Roglič keeps pink, still nineteen seconds up on Yates, but the lagoon took its toll behind him: Richard Carapaz lost forty-six seconds to a mechanical in the crosswinds and Tao Geoghegan Hart went from seventh overall to fifty-seventh in one crash. Today is the longest stage of the race, 235 kilometres, and it ends on a two-kilometre drag up through Frascati — too hard for the pure sprinters.

How it was won

1. 121 km to go

   The break is reeled in

   After a day on a leash the three long-time leaders are finally hauled back as Bora, UAE and Deceuninck light the front, GC and sprint teams jostling toward the uphill finale at Frascati.

2. 27 km to go

   The bunch splits at 6.5km

   Salvatore Puccio touches a wheel near the front and the peloton splits behind him; Ben O'Connor is the GC man to hit the deck.

3. 36 km to go

   Dumoulin goes down

   Five hundred metres later riders slide out on a roundabout — among them Tom Dumoulin, who wrenches his knee, and Simon Yates, caught behind. Only fifteen riders remain out front, and Dumoulin's Giro has just been quietly wrecked.

4. 42 km to go

   The climb bites

   On the two-kilometre drag to the line Valerio Conti piles on the pressure and the pure sprinters crack — Viviani first, then Démare, spat out the back.

5. 5At the line

   Carapaz surges to Frascati

   With 400 metres left Richard Carapaz jumps clear as the others hesitate; Ewan opens up and claws at the gap but runs out of road, and the Ecuadorian has both the stage and a first marker in the GC fight.

The result