Another Top 10 finish for Team Vorarlberg
Giro d’Abruzzo: Day 4 from Silvi to Controguerra (182 kilometers)
The Giro d’Abruzzo came to an end today with another top-10 finish by Giacomo Ballabio. The Italian finished a solid ninth in his home country on the final day, moving up to 19th place in the overall standings as the top rider for Team Vorarlberg. He had already cracked the top ten on the second day, finishing eighth.
The race was effectively decided today about 30 kilometers from the finish, when the three strongest teams in the peloton were each able to break away with one rider. The trio—comprising the two French riders Kévin Vauquelin (Ineos) and Mathys Rondel (Tudor), along with the Italian Nicola Conci (Astana)—built up a lead of just over a minute and held on to a seven-second advantage at the finish. The man of the day was Vauquelin, who won a Tour de France stage in 2024 and finished second overall in last year’s Tour de Suisse. He won the sprint and, thanks to the time bonus, narrowly claimed the overall classification.
Team Vorarlberg was represented in the chasing group by captain Colin Stüssi and Giacomo Ballabio. “Colin, in particular, tried to break away to the very front in the final stretch. However, all the gaps were immediately closed in this very strong field, and no one was able to break away,” race director Paul Renger reported after the finish.
Ballabio fared well in the chase group’s sprint, finishing ninth, while Stüssi crossed the finish line a few seconds later in 28th place. As a result, Ballabio—in 19th place (45 seconds behind)—overtook his teammate in the overall standings. Stüssi finished 23rd, 47 seconds behind. A glance at the final standings shows just how close the competition was: after four days and 640 kilometers, the top 25 finishers were all within one minute of each other.
Philipp Hofbauer had some bad luck today. He crashed in the final stretch, but got off easy—apart from a few scrapes.
Paul Renger had nothing but praise for the tour’s organization: “Everything was really top-notch. No wonder it attracted such strong teams. The tour had a very strong field and definitely has a lot of potential.”
Result: www.procyclingstats.com/race/giro-d-abruzzo/2026/stage-4/result
Roster: Giacomo Ballabio, Ignazio Cireddu, Philipp Hofbauer, Kilian Feurstein, Dominik Röber, Emanuel Zangerle, Colin Stüssi
