Results Giro d'Italia 2026 Stage 4 - Jhonatan Narvaez salvages battered UAE with stunning win as Giulio Ciccone takes Maglia Rosa for first time in his career

Jhonatan Narvaez gave UAE Team Emirates - XRG a stunning response to their nightmare Giro d’Italia start with victory on Stage 4, just 48 hours after the team’s race was ripped apart by the horror crash that forced Adam Yates, Jay Vine and Marc Soler out of the race.

The Ecuadorian came through strongest in the reduced uphill sprint in Cosenza, denying Movistar after their all-day work for Orluis Aular and delivering a badly needed lift for a UAE squad now reduced to five riders.

Behind him, Giulio Ciccone finished second and moved into the maglia rosa as Guillermo Thomas Silva cracked on the Cozzo Tunno climb.

It was a brutal return to Italian roads after the opening weekend in Bulgaria. A stage that looked on paper like it might offer the sprinters one more opportunity instead became a selective, attritional day, with Movistar blowing the race apart on the long climb before the finale.

A six-man breakaway formed early, with Darren Rafferty, Niklas Larsen, Warren Barguil, Martin Marcellusi, Johan Jacobs and Mattia Bais going clear after the official start from Catanzaro. Rafferty briefly became a live threat to the maglia rosa, starting the day only 10 seconds behind Silva, but Astana controlled the gap and the break never gained enough freedom to seriously reshape the day.

Once the race reached the Cat.2 Cozzo Tunno, the stage changed completely. Movistar took command through Lorenzo Milesi, Ivan Garcia and Nelson Oliveira, setting a pace that quickly shredded both the break and the peloton.

The first major casualties were the sprinters. Dylan Groenewegen was dropped early on the climb, before Jonathan Milan, Paul Magnier, Tobias Lund Andresen and others also lost contact. Arnaud De Lie, who had started the Giro after illness and had already struggled through the Bulgarian stages, was later forced to abandon.

Then came the biggest symbolic moment of the climb. Silva, who had written Uruguayan cycling history by taking pink on Stage 2, was distanced with almost 10 kilometres still to climb. His spell in the maglia rosa was effectively over, with Florian Stork, Thymen Arensman, Ciccone and Jan Christen all suddenly in the frame for the race lead.

Movistar’s pace also put genuine GC names under pressure. Filippo Ganna was dropped, ending Netcompany INEOS’ hopes of using him in the finale, before Egan Bernal began to struggle near the top of the climb.

The Colombian champion lost contact before the summit and had to rely on Ben Turner, who sacrificed his own stage chances to help pace him back. Derek Gee also found himself chasing after a mechanical issue, with Matteo Sobrero dropping back to assist him.

For a spell, Bernal and Gee were around 20 to 30 seconds behind the reduced front group, but both managed to return before the finale. That chase mattered, with the race leader’s jersey still finely balanced and bonus seconds available before the finish.

At the Red Bull sprint, Jan Christen strengthened UAE’s position in the overall battle by taking six bonus seconds. Giulio Pellizzari took four, while Ciccone collected two, leaving the fight for pink delicately poised heading into the final kilometres.

With the main sprinters gone and Movistar still driving for Aular, the final became a tactical battle among a reduced group. Visma | Lease a Bike and Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe were well represented, but neither had an obvious fast finisher for the uphill drag to the line.

Christen, already active at the bonus sprint, tried to take matters into his own hands. The Swiss rider attacked with around 1.5 kilometres to go and briefly opened a gap, forcing Movistar and Lidl - Trek to chase as the road twisted towards the finish.

The move was caught inside the final kilometre, setting up a reduced sprint. Aular was launched early after Movistar’s huge investment throughout the stage, but he faded before the line. On the opposite side of the road, Narvaez timed his effort perfectly and surged past to claim UAE’s first win of the race.

Ciccone crossed second, a result that carried its own major reward. With Silva long distanced, the Lidl - Trek rider moved into the maglia rosa after a chaotic and selective first stage on Italian soil.

For UAE, though, the stage win was the headline moment. After losing Yates, Vine and Soler to the Stage 2 disaster, Narvaez delivered the kind of immediate response few teams could have imagined so soon after such a heavy blow.