The brutal slopes up Pico Villuercas crowned Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) after an intense battle towards the first summit finish of La Vuelta 24, on day 4. The Slovenian 3-time winner of the Spanish Grand Tour impressed as he showed the best version of himself only six weeks after his abandon on the Tour de France due to a crash.
He set the pace on the steeper sections of the final ascent and eventually got the better of the young Belgian climber Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny) to take his 20th Grand Tour stage win (13 in La Vuelta, 3 in the Tour, 4 in the Giro). Roglic also takes La Roja as the new overall leader of the race.
After three days in Portugal, La Vuelta 24 turns to the Spanish mountains with a demanding stage 4: 3,250m of elevation to overcome en route to the summit finish at Pico Villuercas, after 170.4km of racing notably featuring the Alto de Piornal. 175 riders take the start under the Sun. And a hard battle immediately unfolds.
Moniquet chases the polka dots
It takes more than 20 kilometres, all the way up the cat-2 Puerto de Cabezabellosa, for five riders to eventually get away: Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Sylvain Moniquet (Lotto Dstny), Filippo Zana (Jayco-AlUla), Pablo Castrillo (Kern Pharma) and Mikel Bizkarra (Euskaltel-Euskadi).
Only trailing by 31’’ on GC, Armirail leads the virtual standings while Moniquet and Zana chase the polka dots. The Belgian climber gets 5 points atop the Puerto de Cabezabellosa (km 23.9) and 10 more at the Alto de Piornal (km 54.1).
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe control
The attackers maintain a strong pace at the front but Primoz Roglic’s Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe quickly show their ambitions to control the race. The gap never gets higher than 3’30’’ (km 50) and it drops down to 2 minutes on the valley leading to the final challenges of the day, with the ascents of the cat-3 Puerto de Miravete (km 123.4) and the cat-1 Pico Villuercas (finish, km 170.4).
Armirail goes first atop the Puerto de Miravete and attacks again with 39km to go. Castrillo follows his move. The front duo face the 14.6km final ascent (average gradient: 6.2%, max: 20%) with a lead of 1’45’’.
Van Eetvelt comes close
Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) is dropped at the very beginning of the climb. Lidl-Trek and T-Rex Quick-Step set a strong pace until Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates) attacks with 5km to go. Primoz Roglic reacts himself and sets the pace on the steeper sections of the ascent.
Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) tries to go with 4km to go. Again, Roglic controls, with Enric Mas (Movistar) and Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny) on his wheel.
Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) and Matthew Riccitello (Israel Premier Tech) bridge the gap with 1.4km to go. So does Mikel Landa (T-Rex-Quick Step) inside the last kilometre and the Spaniard immediately counter-attacks… But Van Eetvelt reacts and Roglic narrowly pipes him on the line.
