Giro Donne 2023: Elisa Longo Borghini sees off Veronica Ewers and Annemiek van Vleuten on Stage 4

Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) claimed victory from a three-up sprint on Stage 4 at the Giro d'Italia Donne with Veronica Ewers (EF Education-Tibco-SVB) and race leader Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar). The Italian champion was positioned perfectly in the finale and held off her two rivals to take a second career win at the Italian Grand Tour.

The trio finished with a 40 second advantage over the chasing pack, which meant Elisa Longo Borghini leapt from 5th place in the general classification to 2nd, while Ewers climbed up onto the podium for the first time in a Women's WorldTour stage race. It all came late on the longest stage of this year's Giro Donne, on which the American made a clever dash out of the bunch to quickly overhaul breakaway remnant Ilse Pluimers (AG Insurance — Soudal Quick-Step).

She briefly held the virtual overall lead before being joined by Longo Borghini and Van Vleuten. The trio then worked well together to maximise their advantage over the chasers, and never looked like being tracked down on the run-in to Borgo Val di Taro, in the north-west of the country.

Ad When the bunch arrived, shy of a minute back, it was stage 3 winner Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx) who won the bunch sprint behind for fourth ahead of Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma). This season Wiebes has shown herself to have more strings to her bow than that of a straightforward sprinter, having made it over climbs and even scored points in the mountains classification.