Giro 2026: preview of stage 4 to Cosenza - A day for strong sprinters or attackers?

In the fourth stage of the Giro d'Italia – the first on Italian soil – anything can really happen. The strong sprinters will certainly have marked this stage as a potential chance for a stage win, but the attackers in the peloton will want to put a spoke in their wheel. What will it be like after the rest day? WielerFlits looks ahead!

Route

The Giro d’Italia continues after a rest day in southern Italy. On Tuesday, the riders will race through Calabria. A tough climb awaits in the final phase.

The fourth stage starts in Catanzaro and features a flat approach through the Calabrian landscape. Only after about eighty kilometers does the climbing begin towards Cozzo Tunno. Over roughly fifteen kilometers, the riders will ascend to more than 900 meters. The gradients are quite manageable: the climb averages 5.9%.

Once at the top, there are still 43 kilometers remaining. The question is whether riders dropped on Cozzo Tunno can get back on in this section. It’s possible that the breakaway of the day has a chance to make it all the way to the finish in Cosenza. Will we see a new leader once again?

Classifications

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This is one of those stages that is particularly difficult to predict. In the first roughly eighty kilometers, everything seems calm for the sprinters, but then the fun begins. Or trouble, depending on how you look at it. The only climb on the route – Cozzo Tunno – should definitely not be underestimated. Almost fifteen kilometers climbing at an average of around 6%. That is quite a tough challenge.

Cozzo Tunno doesn’t have a rich racing history but will certainly cause a selection in the peloton. Especially if some teams see the climb as a point to separate the wheat from the chaff and drop the pure sprinters. We see several teams ready to take up this challenge, including NSN Cycling, Movistar, Netcompany INEOS, and possibly Decathlon CMA CGM.

In short, we fear for the fate of the true speedsters like Jonathan Milan, Dylan Groenewegen, and Ethan Vernon. It also seems unlikely that sprinters such as Paul Magnier and Arnaud De Lie (who has not made progress so far) will survive the climb. Those who do have the qualities to overcome such an obstacle are Kaden Groves and Tobias Lund Andresen. The Dane showed this in the final stage of Tirreno-Adriatico, after a finale comparable to the fourth stage of the Giro.

For those who don’t remember: it was Mathieu van der Poel who rode such a scorching tempo on the slopes of Ripatransone – a climb of nearly nine kilometers – that only twenty riders remained. Andresen was the only true sprinter to make it through this selection. That says something about his climbing ability and his chances for Tuesday’s stage. Can the Decathlon CMA CGM rider take revenge for his narrow defeat (and thus missing out on the first pink jersey) in the opening stage?

Who else to note, if the stage ends in a sprint with a larger but thinned-out group, is Corbin Strong. The Australian is just not fast enough to mix it up in pure mass sprints but can climb well for a fast man. Strong counts on stages like this. Don’t forget that last year he already finished second in a Giro stage, after a finale very similar to what the riders will face on Tuesday. We refer to the stage to the Albanian town of Vlorë, won by Mads Pedersen.

It remains to be seen whether Strong still suffers from the aftermath of the massive crash in Saturday’s stage. The Australian was one of the victims of the chaos on the way to Veliko Tarnovo. Two riders who emerged unscathed, Orluis Aular and Ivan García Cortína, are the two spearheads of the Spanish Movistar. Both are fast at the finish but can also climb. This description also fits Ben Turner (Netcompany INEOS), Francesco Busatto (Alpecin-Premier Tech), and Lukáš Kubiš (Unibet Rose Rockets).

Within the Netcompany INEOS camp, we are also eagerly looking forward to Filippo Ganna, who knows how to handle such a finale. The Italian time trial mercenary can also play different scenarios. Ganna can try an attacking move and finish from a breakaway, but after a tough race he also has fast legs, which always helps in a sprint.

Before the Giro d'Italia, he was not yet well known to the general public, but by now everyone knows who Thomas Guillermo Silva is. The 24-year-old XDS Astana rider made history on Saturday for his home country Uruguay. In the stage to Veliko Tarnovo, he scored a historic double and became the first Uruguayan Giro stage winner, surprising everyone including himself. Silva's Giro is already more than a success, but the fast puncheur will certainly not rest on his laurels. Success is addictive, and so he will be eager to continue his momentum.

What Silva’s victory shows is that a rider must always keep dreaming, because sometimes a dream can come true. It will surely inspire Simone Gualdi to a similar heroic feat. The 21-year-old Italian from Lotto-Intermarché is riding his first grand tour in what is still a young career, but we can definitely expect something from him.

Gualdi has been making great progress in recent months and is on the verge of breaking through at the highest level. The fast and strong rider already placed a good fifth in Eschborn-Frankfurt leading up to the Giro and should be able to go far in this first Giro stage on Italian soil thanks to his sprint and climbing abilities.

It’s worth emphasizing again: this stage is hard to predict. A sprint from a reduced group is a realistic scenario, but not set in stone. Perhaps it will be a day for the attackers, and in that case, besides the names already mentioned, we look to Jasper Stuyven (Soudal Quick-Step), Frank van den Broek (Picnic PostNL), Michael Valgren (EF Education-EasyPost), Javier Romo (Movistar), Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility), and Giro debutant Toon Aerts (Lotto-Intermarché).

A team that should have brought excitement during the stage is UAE Emirates XRG, but the squad is now mainly licking its wounds. The team was the biggest victim of the massive crash during the finale of stage two. Almost the entire squad crashed in a slippery corner on a downhill section with severe consequences: Jay Vine and Marc Soler had to abandon, severely injured team leader Adam Yates saw his GC ambitions go up in smoke, and Jhonatan Narváez and Antonio Morgado also crossed the line far from unscathed.

For UAE Emirates, it is now a matter of regrouping, recovery, and setting new goals. Perhaps Narváez and Morgado will be recovered enough by Tuesday to play a significant role, as the finale suits both riders. The UAE team might strike a deal with XDS Astana, as the Kazakh team with Alberto Bettiol, Diego Ulissi, and Christian Scaroni might also benefit from a hard race. The fact that the team currently races on a pink cloud may work wonders.

Finally, we want to mention the names Florian Stork (Tudor), Edoardo Zambanini, Alec Segaert (both Bahrain Victorious), Fabio Christen (Pinarello-Q36.5), Nico Denz, Mick van Dijke (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), and Thomas Pesenti (Team Polti-VisitMalta).

Weather and TV

Speaking of a perfect spring day. Tuesday will remain dry, with full sunshine and temperatures reaching up to 23 degrees Celsius. Sunscreen is a good idea for riders and spectators alike. The wind will blow at force 3 Beaufort from the southwest.