A new day where a long breakaway created the story of the stage, one of the longest stages of this Giro d'Italia 2013 with its 246 kilometers! It brightened up the long stage but wasn't able to deliver because the peloton got back together in the last 50 kilometers.

Several small breakaways were formed at that time but the stage finally ended in a sprint and the young Enrico Battaglin (Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox) took the win.

The summary of the 4th stage of the Tour of Italy 2013: Policastro Bussentino > Serra San Bruno

This morning at the start of the stage in Policastro Bussentino one rider was missing. Indeed, Sandy Casar (FDJ), who planned to race the 3 Grand Tours (Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España) this year, crashed yesterday and had to leave the roads of the Tour of Italy 2013 with a broken wrist and without being able to race for the next 3 weeks at least.

Like in yesterday's stage, there were several attempts at the start of the stage but this time we had to wait until kilometer 18 before the group was set up with the right riders to get away. In today's breakaway we found Julien Bérard (AG2R La Mondiale), Emanuele Sella (Androni-Giocattoli-Venezuela), Miguel Minguez and Ioannis Tamouridis (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Johan Le Bon and Anthony Roux (FDJ) and Pim Ligthart (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team).
Apparently these 7 riders really wanted to get away because the average speed for the first race hour was 42.2 km/h and after 50 kilometers in the stage, their gap reached its maximum, at 8'15".

Their gap was constantly moving between 7 and 4 minutes without any other event happening in the race ... until a bit less than 100 kilometers from the finish where Pim Ligthart decided to attack, followed by Miguel Minguez and Johan Le Bon and joined a bit later by Julien Bérard again.

At the intermediate sprint in Marinella di Santa Eufemia, where Pim Ligthart crossed the line first, the peloton was 5'08" behind and a few kilometers further the peloton took back the 3 chasing riders who initially were part of the breakaway.

At the foot of the first of the two climbs of this stage, Vibo Valentia, the gap for the 4 leading riders was down to only 1'39". When the peloton comes dangerously close in this climb, Minguez attacks but in the end all leading riders were taken back by this peloton at 42 kilometers from the finish, when it started raining on the stage.

It's Patrick Gretsch (Team Argos-Shimano)'s turn to attack then but the German rider is joined by Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox) who takes the points on top of this 3rd category climb. Giovanni Visconti arrives on top behind Gretsch and thus took enough points to get back the lead in the King of the Mountains classification.

In the descente Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) slides on a slippery road but the Italian rider can continue the race on another bike.

Leonardo Duque (Colombia) is the next rider to attack but his attempt doesn't last long. In the end it's Frederik Willems (Lotto-Belisol) who starts the last climb of the stage together with Patrick Gretsch, the Croce Ferrata (which had its summit at 6.7 kilometers from the finish). In this climb these two last leading riders are also taken back and the peloton is thus back together again.

It's then Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM)'s turn to get away and the Italian rider takes the points in the sprint of Soriano Calabro before he gets company from again Stefano Pirazzi, but also Sylvain Georges (AG2R La Mondiale), Carlos Quintero (Colombia) and Matteo Rabottini (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia).

From this group, Sylvain Georges attacks and the other riders of this breakaway are taken back by the peloton. Georges gets company from Danilo di Luca (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia) but at 5 kilometers from the finish Sylvain Georges is taken back by the peloton. Di Luca gets company from Robinson Chalapud Gomez (Colombia) while another AG2R La Mondiale rider, Hubert Dupont tries - without success - to bridge the gap.

The two leading riders seem to go off to a duo battle for stage victory but in the last kilometer the peloton gets back on them. A bunch sprint on a wet and slippery road rapidly sees Enrico Battaglin (Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox) leading the peloton and the young Italian rider thus takes the victory on the line in Serra San Bruno.

The classifications of the 4th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2013

The stage classification for the 4th stage of the Tour of Italy 2013: Policastro Bussentino > Serra San Bruno

Foto: Llegada del #Giro a Serra San Bruno, con el 3° puesto de @giovisco en la victoria de Enrico Battaglin (BAR). twitter.com/Movistar_Team/…

— Movistar Team (@Movistar_Team) May 7, 2013

Here's the top 10 of this 4th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2013:

1/ Enrico Battaglin (Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox) - 6h14'19"
2/ Fabio Felline (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela)
3/ Giovanni Visconti (Movistar Team)
4/ Rigoberto Uran (Movistar Team)
5/ Arnold Jeannesson (FDJ)
6/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team)
7/ Benat Intxausti (Movistar Team)
8/ Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp)
9/ Robert Kiserlovski (Radioshack-Leopard)
10/ Luca Paolini (Katusha)

The general classification after the 4th stage

With his 10th place at the finish of this stage, Luca Paolini (Katusha) secures his pink jersey as the leader of the general classification.

Here's the current top 5 of the general classification:

1/ Luca Paolini (Katusha) - 15h18'51"
2/ Rigoberto Uran (Team Sky) - +0'17"
3/ Benat Intxausti (Movistar Team) - +0'26"
4/ Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) - +0'34"
5/ Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp)

Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) drops back to the 6th place, at 34 seconds from Paolini.

Points classification and King of the Mountains classification

Some small changes in the top of the points classification where Luca Paolini (Katusha) keeps the lead, with 35 points, 5 more now than Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) and 7 more than Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep).

In the King of the Mountains classification, Giovanni Visconti (Movistar Team) gets back in the lead and thus takes back the blue jersey, with 13 points. Robinson Chalapud Gomez (Colombia) gets in second position with 9 points and Willem Wauters (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) also keeps his 9 points.

Best young riders classification

For the young riders there are no changes in the top 5:

1/ Fabio Aru (Astana) - 15h20'06"
2/ Rafal Majka (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) - +0'19"
3/ Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale) - +0'26"
4/ Wilco Kelderman (Blanco Pro Cycling Team) - +1'06"
5/ Diego Rosa (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela) - +1'09"

Photo illustration article: Gianluca Gozzoli

A video summary of the stage

Here you can find a video summary of this stage:

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Giro d Italia | Giro d'Italia 2013

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