Giro d’Italia 2026: Jonathan Narvaez wins three days after crash

Ecuador’s Ghonatan Narvaez won stage four of the Giro d’Italia, just three days after being involved in a major crash that forced three of his UAE Emirates-XRG teammates to leave the race with serious injuries.

Narvaez, 29, comfortably beat Colombia’s Orluis Auler in an uphill finish in Cosenza, southern Italy.

Italy’s Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek was third and claimed the overall leader’s pink jersey after previous leader Guillermo Thomas Silva of Uruguay dropped 12 minutes behind.

Britain’s Ben Turner of Netcompay Ineos Cycling was fourth after helping Colombian team-mate Egan Bernal recover from losing ground on the stage’s two category climbs.

The first real climb of the three-week race saw the sprint specialists and heavier riders drop from the peloton, which was 14.5 km and had a gradient of up to 11%.

Young Swiss rider Jan Christen of UAE Team Emirates-XRG started in front of the peloton with just two kilometers to go, forcing the peloton to chase him.

Narvaez was able to conserve energy as other teams were forced to work harder to reel in his teammates, and he had more punch when it came to sprinting for the line.

The UAE’s legendary four-time Tour de France-winning team leader Tadez Pogacar is not at the Giro as he prepares for the Tour in July, and the team lost three riders in Saturday’s crash, including Britain’s biggest contender in pink Adam Yates, whose identical twin Simon won last year’s edition of the race.

Yates, 33, left the race with a concussion along with Australia’s Jay Vine, who suffered a pelvic fracture in the second of the opening three stages in Bulgaria, and Spain’s Marc Soler.

Narvaez was seriously injured in a crash at the Tour Down Under in Australia at the start of the season in January.

“It’s really big for me, coming off the injury in Australia,” Narvaez said after the podium.

“This win is for my teammates after crashing in the second stage.”

The hot favorite for the overall win, two-time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingaard of Denmark, finished with the first group of riders and 11th overall, 10 seconds behind Ciccone.

Christen was second and Germany’s Florian Storck of Tudor Pro Cycling third, both four seconds down.