Benjamin King of the Dimension Data Team and Nikita Stalnov of Astana survived at 153km breakaway to take positions 1 & 2 on the 4th stage of the 2018 Vuelta a Espana. Pierre Roland, also part of the initial break came in just seconds later.
Race leader Michal Kwiatkowski finished safely with the peloton to hold onto the race lead.
The stage started in Vélez-Málaga to set off in the direction of Granada with a summit finish in the Sierra de la Alfaguara. Following the start in Vélez-Málaga the route moved along the Costa del Sol to turn inland in Almuñécar. La Vuelta follows the A-4050 to Jete and Otívar. This the Carretera de la Cabra – road of the goats -, an 18.2 kilometres climb with an average gradient of 5.2%. Following a short descent the route continues to climb for 5.8 kilometres at 4% before the riders fly down to the Embalse de los Bermejales.
The stage started with an attack by King and Stalnov along with Ben Gastauer (ALM), Rolland (EFD), Aritz Bagües (EUS), Luis Ángel Maté (COF), Óscar Cabedo (BBH), Jelle Wallays (LTS) and Lars Boom (TLJ) that formed just after the official start and opened a lead of 2 minutes with 153km to go. Knowing that the stage offered up the first summit finish of the 2018 race, the peloton were holding the break on a bit tighter leash. Race leader Michal Kwiatkowski’s Team Sky stayed at the front of the bunch, keeping the pace high.
With 98km to go, the lead snuck out to five minutes, making American Benjamin King of the Dimension Data team the (temporary) virtual leader.
Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis) found the legs to crest the summit of Alto de la Cabra Montés first in front of Ben Gastauer (AG2R-La Mondiale) and Pierre Rolland (Education First-Drapac) to collect 10 more points. He’s currently at 34 points while Rolland sits at 16. Gastauer was not in contention for the KOM jersey before the start of this stage.
King continued as virtual leader with 54km remaining as he and the break edged up to 9’15”.
As the leaders started to approach the final summit, there was a little bit of infighting before a consolidation, but then King and Stalnov made a successful escape. With 9km remaining, King and Stalnov still held a gap of 6’50” over the peloton. King needed to finish 4’33” ahead to take over the lead of the race.
With 7km remaining, King and Stalnov were still out front with Pierre Roland chasing 25 seconds in arrears. LottoNL- Jumbo has moved to the front of the peloton and definitely increased the speed of the peloton.
With less than 5km remaining, King and Stalnov still held a lead of 5’15”. News also came that Kwiatkowski had been isolated. LottoNL-Jumbo was keeping the pace high, dropping Vincenzo Nibali and Ilnur Zakarin.
King drops out of the virtual lead with 3.4km remaining, but it still seemed certain that he or Stalnov could stay away for the stage win.
2018 Vuelta a Espana Stage 4 Brief Results:
- Benjamin King (DDD) at 4h33’12”
- Nikita Stalnov (AST) at 2″
- Pierre Roland (EFD) at 13″
- Luis Ángel Mate (COF) at 1’08”
- Ben Gastauer (ALM) at 1’39”
- Jelle Wallays (LTS) at 1’57”
- Óscar Cabedo (BBH) at 2’24”
- Simon Yates (MTS) at 2’48”
General Classification After Stage 4:
- Michal Kwiatkowski (SKY) at 13h47’19”
- Emanuel Buchmann (BOH) at 7″
- Simon Yates (MTS) at 10″
- Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) at 12″
- Jon Izaguirre (Bahrain Merida) at 30″
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