It was the first hard mountain stage of the Giro d’Italia Women with a stage finish up the Pianezze Valdobbiadene (10.65 km, 7.54%) climb.
Giro d’Italia Women stage 4 2025 profile
With the Women’s Tour de France two weeks away not all the favourites are here but still it is a very strong field with Marlen Reusser, who has been flying up steep climbs this year, Elisa Longo Borghini, Anna van der Breggen, Antonia Niedermaier, Lotte Kopecky, Lorena Wiebes and other strong riders.
Liane Lippert did a hard pull for her teammate Reusser early in the climb and reduced the group to a handful of the riders. The Swiss engine after Lippert’s job was done attacked to reduce the group to six riders but as no one wanted to work or cooperate, many riders came back forming a 13 rider group. In the last 3 kilometres Reusser attacked again but later Sarah Gigante surprised with a powerful acceleration riding away from everyone and powering to her biggest win in Europe, beating big stars Longo Borghini and Reusser by 25 seconds.
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Gigante on Pianezze Valdobbiadene did 5.29 ᵉW/kg for 32:39, a very high-level performance after many years of suffering and health issues, the most recent being iliac artery surgery and skipping the Tour Down Under 2025. Her first race of the season was the Tour of Norway only one month ago. The climbing level was exceptional for everyone. Even Anna van der Breggen, who finished 13th with a time loss of 1:52 to Gigante, did 5.03 ᵉW/kg for 34:31. In her prime years, that might have been enough for a victory in the 2010s or even early 2020s, but with the performance levels increasing, especially among the top 10 to 50 climbers, it is not easy to get even a top 10 at a World Tour stage race.