Another mountainous stage in Vuelta a Pais Vasco saw attacks from Alberto Contador who retained his overall lead. Dutchman Wouter Poels took the stage win.
It was a tough stage 4 in Vuelta a Pais Vasco, where the riders had to tackle three category 2 climbs and 2 category 1 climbs – the last one peaking just a few kilometers from the finish line.
The stage started with a frantic pace and when the riders arrived at the penultimate climb, the peloton was down to 50 riders. On the last climb, Tinkoff-Saxo naturally sat the tempo further reducing the size of the peloton. Roman Kreuziger moved to the front on the last climb and held the rivals of team leader Alberto Contador in a tight grip making sure that eager attacks was kept to a minimum.
With just a couple of kilometers to go of the final climb, Alberto Contador decided to open the stage himself by deploying a series of accelerations and attacks on the remaining favorites.
– Today was a hard and fast stage here in Vuelta a Pais Vasco. We went 52 km/h in the first hour of the race. Thanks to the team, they did a great job showing impressive strength. Tomorrow there will certainly be more to come, says the overall classifications leader Alberto Contador.
However Alejandro Valverde – the main contender of Tinkoff-Saxo’s Spanish captain – responded quickly and followed every attack from Contador. But it was only in the last few corners of the technical descent down to the finish line that Valverde made his move trying to secure a few seconds on Contador. He succeeded in gaining two seconds due to a small gap in the group of the favorites. But Valverde was unable to catch Omega Pharma – QuickStep’s Wouter Poels who took the win just in front of the Movistar rider.
DS Philippe Mauduit believes that tomorrow will be another hard fought stage since Valverde and the rest of the favorites need to gain on Alberto Contador before the hilly time trial Saturday – a time trial that also concludes this year’s Pais Vasco.
– Today we had a strong headwind on the last climb. Maybe that’s why Alejandro waited for the descent to attack. So we will definitely see more attacks tomorrow. Alejandro Valverde needs to attack if he wants to go for the overall victory. So the boys are ready to control and help Alberto has much as possible, explains Philippe Mauduit.
