Stage 4 Start From Vélez-Málaga saw riders take on another tough, hilly stage of the 2018 Vuelta. The summit finish in the Sierra de la Alfaguara saw US rider Ben King of Dimension Data take the stage victory ahead of Nikita Stainov of Astana Pro Team and Pierre Rolland of EF Education First-Drapac/Cannondale.
Link to the stage four route map
The stage started at the coast in Vélez-Málaga, with riders heading in the direction of Grenada for the 2018's first official summit finish. Riders seemed reluctant to make a break away as the temperature soared during the end of the Spanish summer. Stage winner, Ben King joined nine other riders to make a break away group, with the main peloton happy to watch how their race unfolded.
By the time the lead group reached to the top of the first climb, their lead over the main group was over seven minutes. Luis Angel Maté of Cofidis, holder of the King of the Mountains jersey was fortunate enough to be in the break away group, and was able to extend his lead further by claiming maximum points at the top of the Cabra Montés.
The main group was in no hurry to catch the lead group as their lead grew to over ten minutes. King was the final rider remaining in front at the final moments of the stage to take the stage win, with only two seconds over Stainov.
Overall classification after stage four
Michal Kwiatkowski was able to retain the Red Jersey, but the top three of the general classification has changed a lot with both Emanuel Buchmann of Bora-Hansgrohe and Simon Yates of Mitchelton-Scott working hard to make their way into the top three. Both Buchmann and Yates are within 10 seconds of Kwiatkowski so it will be interesting to see if the Polish rider can hold onto his lead.
- Michal Kwiatkowski(Pol) Team Sky in 13 hours, 47 minutes, 19 seconds
- Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe at 7 seconds
- Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott at 10 seconds
Tomorrow - Stage 5 Start From Granada to Roquetas de Mar
The 5th Stage of the Vuelta a Espania, is a 188km ride from Granada to Roquetas de Mar which will see the riders finish back at the Mediterranean coast. Although there are very limited parts of this stage that are actually flat, the hill climbs are not too steep, so the finish will most likely come down to a sprint, when they reach the coast.
The stage travels through the Alpijarras, with the toughest climb of the day being a 15km climb to Alto El Marchal, that has an average incline of about 4%
The ascent will give the riders a 19km drop taking them to the final 8km of the stage where there will most likly be a final sprint to the line to decide the stage winner.
I'll be covering each stage of the Vuelta A Espana, giving a breakdown of each days stage, my previous post's in @cyclefeed were the results of stage two and three for this years Vuelta, so feel free to have a look:
@run.vince.run/2018-vuelta-a-espana-stage-2
@run.vince.run/2018-vuelta-a-espana-stage-3
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Please Note all maps are made by myself using Strava