After Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) won the Maglia Rosa with a solo victory on stage 2 of the Giro d'Italia Donne, the Dutch racer thought she would be able to take it easy on stage 4.

However, things took a rather different turn when her trademark attack was unleashed again on the final climb of this hilly stage that only reigning world champion Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) could chase.

Current Italian national champion Longo Borghini won a sprint duel with Van Vleuten and breakaway Veronica Eworth (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB), with Van Vleuten crossing the finish line in third place, ahead of all but two of her rivals He extended his overall lead over his rivals.

"I had marked this stage as a sprinters' stage. But yesterday evening the team director told me that an attack might be the best defense," Van Grooten later recalled.

"I like aggressive racing, so an aggressive plan suits me better."

"I knew that in the final there would be a three-kilometer "bumpy" climb.

"The team did a great job leading out. I needed a long, hard effort and they did a great job. I slowed down a little bit and then went straight down, but Elisa was the only one who was able to keep up with me." When Ewers and Longo Borghini began skipping turns to prepare for a sprint in the last kilometer, Van Fruten continued to race hard down the finish straight. She finished third, but earned a time bonus of 40 seconds plus 4 seconds.

"The main goal was to take time away from the other GC contenders; DS only made me think about the last kilometer of the stage. It was really good coaching."

"I know Elisa is a little faster than me. Especially since I pulled pretty hard and felt the sprint was no longer in my legs. I always want to win, but it wasn't close and she was much faster," explained Van Breuten.

Before attacking on the final climb, Van Vleuten had a bit of a scare with 37km to go: she hit the back wheel of Niamh Fischer-Black (Team SD Works) with her front wheel and collided with Marta Jaskulska (Rib Racing TeqFind). Longo Borghini, Lizzie Stannard (Israel-Premier Tech Roland), and Lauren Stevens (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) also slipped. Van Vleuten, however, did not crash on the pavement and quickly returned to his bike.

Maglia Rosa now turned his thoughts to the fifth stage from Sarassa to Ceres, where just 26.8 km into the 105.7 km stage lies the summit of Passo del Lupo. Passo del Lupo has an average gradient of 8.4% and climbs for 10.1 km.

After the Cima Coppi, the race descends to Quornice, where a bonus sprint takes place. After that, an uncategorized climb continues to Forno Canavese, forcing the fallen riders to work hard to catch up.

The 6.1km, 6.6% climb to Sant'Ignazio will be the last chance to blow the race open. Tomorrow is not a stage where you can relax a bit. No, tomorrow is a super hard stage," Van Vleuten said.