Narváez Strikes for Decimated UAE Team

Jhonatan Narváez put another win in the column for UAE Emirates-XRG after team Movistar animated a breathless finale to Tuesday’s stage at the Giro d’Italia.

Narváez won the reduced sprint ahead of Orluis Aular (Movistar) and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl Trek) on stage 4 of the Italian tour after Movistar shelled all the pure sprinters ahead of a flat finale in Cosenza, Italy.

It was some result Tuesday for Narváez and his embattled UAE super team.

The squad lost three riders in the brutal crash that rocked stage 2 this weekend, and the Ecuadorian is racing for the first time since he broke is back in January at the Tour Down Under.

The team that last year broke the all-time single season stage-win record certainly isn’t all about Tadej Pogačar.

“It’s really big for me, coming from three months of training in Ecuador,” Narváez said at the line.

“I want to thank my family who supported me but this victory is also for my teammates who crashed. They’ve been working for a while to come here in a good condition,” he said.

“We took the victory today but we were good before stage 2 too. I think we are a lot happier now.”

Ciccone and Christen move up

Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) gave the home tifosi something to cheer for on the Giro’s first stage on Italian soil and provided Lidl-Trek a timely mojo boost.

The Italian moved into the pink jersey after he picked up bonuses at the line and at the Red Bull Kilometer.

Overnight race leader Thomas Silva (XDS-Astana) was gapped by Movistar’s all-out offense on the sprinters early in the stage.

Jan Christen put even more momentum under UAE Emirates XRG by moving up to second overall on Tuesday’s stage.

The young Swiss vaulted up the GC after he won the Red Bull bonuses, and very nearly won the stage with an audacious solo raid in the final two kilometers.

“Jan is a great guy, he was trying to take the maglia rosa,” Narváez said. “In the end, I just had to wait for the sprint.”

Pre-race favorite Jonas Vingegaard finished safe in the bunch, but it wasn’t a perfect day for the Dane.

His veteran Visma-Lease a Bike Wilco Kelderman abandoned ahead of the stage due to the injuries he sustained in the brutal crash on stage 2 in Bulgaria.

Banged-up Aussie speedster Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and sickly sprinter Arnaud de Lie (Lotto Intermarché) also abandoned the stage.

Movistar blows up stage, Bernal suffers

The Giro landed into Italy after its Bulgarian start with a 138km romp across Calabria, deep in the southern foot of Italy’s “boot.”

A sprawling 14.4km cat 2 climb dominated the route profile. Topping out with 45km to go ahead of a long, fast descent and a 20km flat drag race to the finish, it dictated the outcome of the stage.

Movistar blew up the climb to shell the heaviest sprinters for its fast finisher, Aular.

It was like a bonfire of the speedsters as the heavyweights were burned off the group one-by-one.

Overnight race leader Silva and two-time stage-winner Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) were among the victims of Movistar’s relentless pace.

Egan Bernal (Netcompany Ineos) was also dropped in what might be a warning of things to come. The former Giro winner didn’t lose time in the final but endured a long chase back after Ineos dropped riders back to assist.

The hopes of Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek) were also saved by the chasing group after he was held up by a mechanical on the long descent.

Giro d’Italia stage 4 results: