2018 Vuelta a España Stage 4 Results & Recap
Stage 4 of the 2018 Vuelta a España is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
King wins stage 4\nBy Clara Beard
American Ben King won the first summit finish of the Vuelta a Espana from the early break, which succeeded after 164 km of racing after gaining a maximum of 10 minutes before the final climb, the Puerto de Alfacar. The Dimension Data rider won ahead of breakaway companion Nikita Stalnov (Astana) and Pierre Rolland (Education First-Drapac).
“It was the plan to be part of the breakaway, but then I didn’t know exactly how to handle things,” King said. “At some point, I realised the front group would fight for the stage but I wasn’t convinced I’d be the strongest. I went early and I put myself in TT mode. Stalnov wanted me to give him the victory if he helped me take the red jersey but winning a Grand Tour stage was my goal since the beginning of the year. I was sick at the Giro, it didn’t work, and breakaways rarely succeed, but if you never put yourself in this position… I was totally jacked up, I could feel the cramps but I stayed strong in the head and got it. It’s incredible. It’s great for the team too. Everybody knows we’ve had a rough season but we believe in what we do. We know a victory like today’s will help raise more bikes for Qhubeka. It’s an honour to ride for a cause and an extra motivation.”
Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) stays in the red jersey but not by much. Late attacks from Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) out of the GC bunch have brought the Polish rider’s lead down to a slim margin.
“We tried to control the breakaway but we were happy with the gap they had,” Kwiatkowski said in the press conference. “We expected teams to make things hard in the final climb and that’s what happened with LottoNL-Jumbo. Congratulations to them for their effort but in the end, they didn’t get anything out of it. I’m not the main GC contender. Quintana, Valverde, Bennett, Buchmann, those are the guys who need to do something in the mountain summit finishes. Today’s scenario was perfect for me. It wasn’t my interest to chase the break, but to maintain a good position regarding GC and save some strength and that’s what I did. I’m happy.”
The original early break, that was set loose in the opening kilometres, had polka-dot jersey Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis) and KOM rival Pierre Rolland (Education First-Drapac), Ben Gastauer (Astana), Stalnov, Jelle Wallays (Lotto-Soudal), King, Lars Boom (LottoNL-Jumbo), Oscar Cabedo (Burgos-BH) and Aritz Bagues (Euskadi-Murias).
They only grew their lead until the final climb, 12.4km from the finish. From there, only King and Stainov remained, but Rolland kept fighting, almost reconnecting with the two 500 metres before the finish.
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