Giro Donne 2005

1^st July - 10^th July

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Stage Review - Stage 4 - 118km

Finally, the weather broke on the Giro Donne and finally, there was some racing.......  After 2 days of riding steadily in the flatlands and waiting for the massed sprint, the wind and rain which occurred about 30 minutes after the start of Stage 4 helped to break things up a bit and to make life hard for some riders. 

A notable non-finisher today was previous champion, Fabiana Luperini, who withdrew from the race with a stomach upset at about 55km covered.  The action had started before that, though at around 37km covered, when 8 riders went away - the whole of Team Vrienden van het Platteland, Melissa Holt (Team SATS), Zinaida Stahurskaia (Team Lazio - Ladispoli) and Svetlana Boubnenkova (Fenixs).  They were chased by what became 3 groups - the chase was led by Team Bigla (defending Braendli's Maglia Rosa), Buitenpoort-Flexpoint, Nobili Rubinetterie - the latter two without a rider in the break. The other teams were happy to follow.

At 55km, around half distance, the race entered its second lap of the long circuit which constituted the stage and at around that point, the break was brought back. 

The two laps covered today were long and thin and flat - the course ran along the built-up 'bergs' or banks of the river the start and finish towns were only a few kilometres apart in the middle of the massive 'hot dog' circuit. With the rain and wind and the view out along the riverbanks, the race could easily have been placed at a glance in the Netherlands. 

Early in  the second lap, one rider went away on her own - Bianchi's Lise Christensen. She was allowed a maximum gap of 30 seconds alone in the rain before being brought back 8km after she went. With 38km to go, there were 4 distinct groups - the Maglia Rosa group, then at 4 minutes another group, then at 6 minutes another and a final group at 8 minutes. The race was further split with 23km to go, when 6 riders went off the front - Zoulfia Zabirova, (Team Bigla), Veronica Andersson (Bianchi), Gemma Pascual (Bizkaia-Panda Software), Tanja Hennes (Buitenpoort-Flexpoint), Yjulia Martisova (Fenixs) and Joanne Kiesanowski (Nobili Rubinetterie. Although with 20km to go, Pascual was dropped from the group. The sun reappeared for the final 20km too.

With 10 km to go, Zoulfia Zabirova made the race-winning break by going off the front of the leading group. She stayed away to coast across the line alone. 24 seconds later, Joanne Kiesanowski outsprinted Tanja Hennes to take second and third respectively. Fourth place (also at 24 seconds) went to Yjulia Marisova, the Russian Champion, who never really looked to be in contention for a podium place and fifth on the stage, was Veronica Andreasson, who was dropped in the sprint to the line.  

Results - Stage 4