Hannah Barnes sprinted to fourth place on stage four at the Giro Rosa today in Occhiobello. Despite being the flattest stage of the tour a GC shake up happened when several teams took advantage of strong crosswinds in the hot conditions. The stage was won by Jolien d’Hoore (WHT), with Barnes narrowly beaten for a podium third place.

“We were predicting a bunch sprint and we had a lead out planned for that scenario. It was quite a hard stage especially in the last 30 kilometres because the GC teams were taking advantage of the cross winds,” said Barnes.

“I came into the last roundabout at 300m to go fifth wheel, Alexis (Ryan) took it first and then I opened my sprint coming out of that corner. The sprint was a real drag race and I’ve ended up fourth. I’m feeling quite good and looking forward to the next stages,” added Barnes.

Director Sportif Barry Austin said the team is performing well and will keep ambitions high for the next six days. “It’s really good the team is finding an objective for each stage and fighting within the race to achieve each objective. We’re positive for the upcoming stages and we are definitely looking for more opportunities for our team.”

Tomorrow’s stage five is an individual time trial (ITT) at Sant‘Elpidio A Mare in the province of Marche. The 12km point-to-point course has two climbs, and with the final pitch of the second climb reaching gradients of 25%, the chance for a change on the overall classification is high.

ITT start times (CEST) for CANYON//SRAM riders will be:
Leah Thorvilson 12:18
Barbara Guarischi 13:27
Alexis Ryan 14:21
Elena Cecchini 14:33
Hannah Barnes 14:35

Results can be followed on Twitter using #GiroRosa and #UCIWWT.