2024 Vuelta a España Stage 4 Results & Recap
Stage 4 of the 2024 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
Roglic takes Red on Stage 4
On the steep Pico Villuercas, Primoz Roglic won the sprint from an elite group. He narrowly beat Lennert Van Eetvelt and took the red jersey from Wout van Aert.
"The stage win was not actually the main objective today, but when I see the guys riding so hard in this heat, I’m happy to finish it off," Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) said. "I didn’t ask them to do that, and nobody asked me either! If they’d asked me, I probably would have told them not to go so hard and to control for the victory. I had no option. It was tough, steep, and I felt my back a bit after some hours. Hopefully, it doesn’t get worse. The idea is the same, to keep going day by day. I always say it: you never know when it will be your last victory so I just enjoy it. It’s life, there are challenges and I’m just really happy, especially with the way the team was working."
After a fast start, Joshua Tarling, Lorenzo Germani and Mauro Schmid managed to get away. The trio was joined by Luca Vergallito, Simone Petilli, Bruno Armirail, Eduardo Sepulveda, Harold Martin Lopez, Antonio Jesus Soto, Dylan Teuns, and Xabier Berasategi before the peloton brought them back on the Puerto de Cabezabellosa.
An attack by Brandon Rivera, Bruno Armirail, Luca Vergallito, Eduardo Sepulveda, and Callum Scotson was also quickly neutralised.
Then it was Bruno Armirail again. This time with William Junior Lecerf, Sylvain Moniquet, and Mikel Bizkarra, while Filippo Zana tracked them down. Pablo Castrillo replaced William Junior Lecerf at the front, and the five crested the summit 37 seconds ahead of the bunch. They added three more minutes to their lead, and then Red Bull-BORA took the reins in the peloton.
Moniquet took full KOM points on the first two summits; Armiral was the first rider to crest the Puerto de Miravete.
"The goal is to see day by day but for sure the polka-dot jersey was not a goal at the beginning of La Vuelta," Sylvain Moniquet (Lotto Dstny) said. '"The main goal is the GC with Lennert Van Eetvelt. I will try to position him before the climbs and tense points of the race. I was thinking about the jersey going in the race this morning, and when we arrived on the first climb I started attacking, thinking about getting the points and maybe why not have the jersey tonight at the hotel? So I tried to take as many points as possible. Tomorrow is flat so I’m a bit lucky but then the real mountains start and we will see day by day, it’s not really a big goal for the moment."
Armirail headed out alone inside the last 40 kilometers while Castrillo tracked him down.
The duo hit the finish climb 1.30 minutes ahead of the peloton. Red jersey Wout van Aert was dropped on the early slopes.
The two attackers were caught just after hitting the steepest ramps, with 4.7 kilometres to go.
Felix Gall opened up a gap inside the last 4 kilometres. Primoz Roglic, Enric Mas and Lennert Van Eetvelt overhauled him 1 kilometre later. The trio crawled away on the virtually vertical concrete while Gall got company from behind.
As the climb flattens out in the final few kilometres, Gall catches up at the front with Matthew Riccitello and João Almeida. When Mikel Landa shows up with 400 metres to go and attacks straight away, Van Eetvelt chases him down, closes the gap, and powers on. Roglic is the only one who can follow, and he comes across with a decisive jump in the last metres.
The Slovenian takes the lead, 8 seconds ahead of Almeida and 32 seconds ahead of Mas.\n
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