{"id":1931888,"date":"2026-05-12T15:34:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1931888"},"modified":"2026-05-12T15:34:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:34:00","slug":"giro-ditalia-stage-4-narvaez-strikes-back-for-the-decimated-uae-super-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1931888","title":{"rendered":"Giro d’Italia Stage 4: Narv\u00e1ez Strikes Back for the Decimated UAE Super Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2275283288.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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Jim Cotton<\/span><\/div>\n

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Updated May 12, 2026 10:08AM<\/div>\n
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Jhonatan Narv\u00e1ez put another win in the column for UAE Emirates-XRG after team Movistar animated a breathless finale to Tuesday\u2019s stage at the Giro d\u2019Italia.<\/p>\n

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Narv\u00e1ez 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.<\/p>\n

It was some result Tuesday for Narv\u00e1ez and his embattled UAE super team.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The team that last year broke the all-time single season stage-win record certainly isn\u2019t all about Tadej Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really big for me, coming from three months of training in Ecuador,\u201d Narv\u00e1ez said at the line.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI want to thank my family who supported me but this victory is also for my teammates who crashed. They\u2019ve been working for a while to come here in a good condition,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took the victory today but we were good before stage 2 too. I think we are a lot happier now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ciccone and Christen move up<\/h2>\n
Ciccone gave the home tifosi, and team Lidl-Trek, something to smile about. <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) gave the home tifosi<\/em> something to cheer for on the Giro\u2019s first stage on Italian soil and provided Lidl-Trek a timely mojo boost.<\/p>\n

The Italian moved into the pink jersey after he picked up bonuses at the line and at the Red Bull Kilometer.<\/p>\n

Overnight race leader Thomas Silva (XDS-Astana) was gapped by Movistar\u2019s all-out offense on the sprinters early in the stage.<\/p>\n

Jan Christen put even more momentum under UAE Emirates XRG by moving up to second overall on Tuesday\u2019s stage.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u201cJan is a great guy, he was trying to take the maglia rosa<\/em>,\u201d Narv\u00e1ez said. \u201cIn the end, I just had to wait for the sprint.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pre-race favorite Jonas Vingegaard finished safe in the bunch, but it wasn\u2019t a perfect day for the Dane.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Banged-up Aussie speedster Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and sickly sprinter Arnaud de Lie (Lotto Intermarch\u00e9) also abandoned the stage.<\/p>\n

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Movistar blows up stage, Bernal suffers<\/h2>\n

The Giro landed into Italy after its Bulgarian start with a 138km romp across Calabria, deep in the southern foot of Italy\u2019s \u201cboot.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Movistar blew up the climb to shell the heaviest sprinters for its fast finisher, Aular.<\/p>\n

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It was like a bonfire of the speedsters as the heavyweights were burned off the group one-by-one.<\/p>\n

Overnight race leader Silva and two-time stage-winner Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) were among the victims of Movistar\u2019s relentless pace.<\/p>\n

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Despite Movistar working all day, UAE outfoxed them in the finale. \ud83d\udc81\u200d\u2642\ufe0fFirst, Jan Christen’s attack softened Movistar and Lidl-Trek and then Narvaez finished it off with a great sprint, like the one when he beat Pogacar two years ago. #GirodItalia pic.twitter.com\/ErS8mGzOQY<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mihai Simion (@faustocoppi60) May 12, 2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Egan Bernal (Netcompany Ineos) was also dropped in what might be a warning of things to come. The former Giro winner didn\u2019t lose time in the final but endured a long chase back after Ineos dropped riders back to assist.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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Giro d\u2019Italia stage 4 results:<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

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Jim Cotton<\/span><\/div>\n

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Updated May 12, 2026 10:08AM<\/div>\n
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[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/giro-ditalia\/giro-ditalia-stage-4-narvaez-strikes-for-uae\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2275283288.jpg”] Jim Cotton Updated May 12, 2026 10:08AM Jhonatan Narv\u00e1ez put another win in the column for UAE Emirates-XRG after team Movistar animated a breathless finale to Tuesday\u2019s stage at the Giro d\u2019Italia. Narv\u00e1ez won the reduced sprint ahead of Orluis Aular (Movistar) and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl Trek) on stage 4 of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1931888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1931888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1931888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1931888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1931888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}