The eagerly awaited first mountain finish of the Vuelta a Espana 2024 provided numerous insights. One of them: Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) has recovered from his crash at the Tour de France and is in very good shape. The Slovenian won on the Pico Villuercas in the sprint of a small group ahead of Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto-Dstny) and slips into the red jersey. The 23-year-old Belgian van Eetvelt had already started to cheer a few metres before the finish and thus gave up the stage win. Third place went to Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates).
After his 13th day's success at the Vuelta, Roglic himself was downbeat about the possibility of a fourth overall victory in view of the vertebral fracture that forced him to abandon the Tour de France a few weeks ago. He had already felt his back again after a few hours in the saddle.
Hopefully it won't get any worse. The goal remains the same: we look from day to day - Primoz Roglic
After 170.4 kilometres between Plasencia and Pico Villuercas, which were completed in temperatures of up to 40°C, a total of seven riders belonged to the first group to reach the finish together. Behind them, some of the highly rated favourites were already having problems, such as last year's winner Sepp Kuss (Visma | Lease a Bike/+0:28), Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl Trek/+0:43), Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers/+0:51), Richard Carapaz (EF Education EasyPost/+1:29), Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates/+1:29) or Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma | Lease Bike/+1:38). The captain's role at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe should now also be clear within the team. Aleksandr Vlasov lost 38 seconds, Giro runner-up Daniel Felipe Martinez 4:10 minutes and the top German talent Florian Lipowitz was also unable to keep up with the best with a gap of 1:36 minutes.
Vuelta a Espana 2024 - Results: the top 10 of stage 4
- Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) 4:26:49
- Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto-Dstny) +0:00
- Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +0:00
- Enric Mas (Movistar) +0:00
- Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +0:00
- Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech) +0:00
- Mikel Landa (Soudal - Quick Step) +0:00
- Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:18
- George Bennett (Israel-Premier Tech) +0:28
- Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates) +0:28
The overall standings of the Tour of Spain
- Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) 14:33:08
- Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +0:08
- Enric Mas (Movistar) +0:32
- Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:38
- Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto-Dstny) +0:41
- Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +0:47
- Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) +0:50
- Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +0:58
- Mikel Landa (Soudal - Quick Step) +0:58
- Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +1:00
How the 4th stage of the Vuelta a Espana 2024 went
In contrast to the first two mass start stages, the places in the breakaway group were highly coveted on day four. There were numerous attacks before the group of the day was formed with five riders: Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Pablo Castrillo (Equipo Kern Pharma), Filippo Zana (Team Jayco-AlUla), Sylvain Moniquet (Lotto-Dstny) and Mikel Bizkarra (Euskaltel-Euskadi). They broke away shortly before the summit of the Puerto de Cabezabellosa (2nd category).
Moniquet takes the mountain jersey at the 2024 Vuelta a Espana
There was also a crash in the early stages involving Thymen Arensman, Oscar Rodriguez and Laurens De Plus from Ineos Grenadiers, among others. The breakaway riders, meanwhile, had their sights set not only on the stage win but also the mountains jersey. Moniquet took five points on the Puerto de Cabezabellosa and another ten points on the Alto de Piornal (1st category). The Belgian only collected one more point on the Puerto de Miravete (3rd category) and came away empty-handed on the final climb. But with a total of 16 points, he took over the points jersey from Luis Angel Mate (Euskaltel-Euskadi).
Armirail and Castrillo set themselves apart
The group did not get more than 3:30 minutes ahead of the peloton on stage 4 of the Vuelta a Espana 2024. Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe took responsibility. Patrick Gamper and Nico Denz in particular did a lot of work. Around 39 kilometres before the finish, the unity among the breakaway riders was over. Armirail and Castrillo put their three companions in the wind and from then on made common cause as the leading duo. The Spaniard was the first to cross the intermediate sprint in Roturas. There was also a sprint behind him. Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) took third place ahead of Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) and reduced his gap to the Belgian in the points classification to six points.
Roglic sets the pace
The two leaders went into the final climb with a lead of around 1:40 minutes over the peloton. There, van Aert dropped back early on, making it clear that there would be a new overall leader. Going into the steep section, UAE Team Emirates pushed the pace with Pavel Sivakov, who initially caught the two breakaway riders. The Frenchman's attempt was countered by Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), who then took the lead and set the pace.
Gall's attack without success
Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) attacked with 3.8 kilometres to go. The Austrian pulled out a lead of around ten to 15 seconds. Roglic increased the pace again three kilometres before the finish. In tow was the Slovenian Enric Mas (Movistar) and Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto-Dstny). The trio caught up with Gall, who was unable to keep up shortly afterwards and, together with Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech) and Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), formed a chasing trio that regained the lead with 1.4 kilometres to go.
Van Eetvelt rejoices too early, Roglic wins
The group of six riders at the front were watching each other, allowing Mikel Landa (Soudal - Quick Step) to catch up again. The 34-year-old Basque took advantage of a brief moment of calm among his rivals to attack with momentum around 300 metres before the finish. Van Eetvelt followed suit and passed him. The youngster indicated shortly before the finish that he had won stage 4 of the Vuelta a Espana 2024. However, he had done the maths without Roglic, who put his front wheel past in the final metres.
