Three-times former champion Primoz Roglic has won the first mountain stage of this year’s Vuelta a Espana as he showed his strength at the end of a ferocious climb to Pico Villuercas.
On a baking hot 170 km fourth stage in which the peloton crossed from Portugal into Spain, riders faced gradients of up to 20 per cent in the last few kilometres and a group of seven approached a sprint to the line.
Mikel Landa (T Rex – Quick-Step)made the first move but was quickly caught by Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny), who approached the slight right-hand final bend in the road thinking he had won.
Roglic then burst past Van Eetvelt to snatch the win just as the Belgian appeared to raise his right arm in a premature victory gesture.
Slovenian Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) moved into the overall race lead, taking the red jersey from Wout Van Aert (Team Visma-Lease A Bike).
The first day for the GC contenders to play their cards saw Roglic put down a marker while Portugal’s Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) finished third on the stage and is second overall, eight seconds back. Enric Mas (Movistar Team) placed fourth in the stage and is third overall, trailing Roglic by 32 seconds.
Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) is 14th, one minute 20 seconds behind Roglic, with Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) the only other Australian in the top 50, placed 23rd, 36 seconds further back.
Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) gained two points on Van Aert in the points race, which the Belgian now leads 111-105 with third place 70 points adrift.
Stage five on Wednesday should suit the sprinters in a relatively flat 177 km route to Seville.
with AP
Source Agencies
