Primož Roglič of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe (right) crosses the finish line as stage 4 winner ahead of Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny)(Image credit: Getty Images)
Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny) moments after a mistimed celebration(Image credit: Getty Images)
Roglic taking a narrow stage victory from Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny) (Image credit: Getty Images)
Roglic and Van Eetvelt charging to the line(Image credit: Getty Images)
Primoz Roglic riding in the protection of his teammates on the way to stage victory(Image credit: Getty Images)
The peloton in the midst of stage 4 of Le Vuelta a España(Image credit: Getty Images)
Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Dstny) at the front of the pack(Image credit: Getty Images)
Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) enjoying his last stage in red(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mathias Vacek (Lidl Trek) riding in the white jersey for the best young rider at the Vuelta(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) entered the stage as a strong GC contender(Image credit: Getty Images)
The peloton riding through the Portuguese landscape(Image credit: Getty Images)
Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers) riding in the wheels of teammates(Image credit: Getty Images)
An early breakaway of Pablo Castrillo (Equipo Kern Pharma) and Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale)(Image credit: Getty Images)
Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek) in the feed zone in the early part of stage 4(Image credit: Getty Images)
Primoz Roglic ahead of the start of stage 4(Image credit: Getty Images)
Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) showed his crash injuries from the Tour de France were well behind him as he rocketed to victory on stage 4 of the Vuelta a España on Tuesday.
Roglič prevailed atop the Pico Villuercas after 170.5 kilometres of racing, narrowly out-pacing Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny) who celebrated too soon and lost the sprint. João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) was third.
On a searingly hot day, the peloton waited to chase down the day's breakaway until the final 5 kilometres. Roglič was up front and ready for any attacks, but waited until the very last to make his move.
"It was tough - the heat, and for me now coming a bit back," Roglič said, adding that he is still struggling with his back injury.
"I felt definitely the back already after some hours. But I have to see, hopefully it doesn't get worse."
Roglič said nobody asked him to try for the stage win, he just felt he had to after his team controlled the race all day.
"It was not actually the main objective of today. When you see the guys riding hard in this heat, I'm happy to finish it off."
Roglič now leads the Vuelta by eight seconds over Almeida, with Enric Mas (Movistar) third at 32 seconds, but insists he's going to stick to his plan to "just to go day by day".
Defending champion Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) lost 28 seconds and trails in 13th overall as teammate Wout van Aert gave up the red leader's jersey.
How it Unfolded
It was a sweltering day for the first major mountain stage of the 2024 Vuelta a España, and it started with an aggressive battle to make the day's breakaway. A move came first from Joshua Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers), Lorenzo Germani (Groupama-FDJ), Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla), Luca Vergallito (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Simone Petilli (Intermarché-Wanty), with Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Eduardo Sepulveda (Lotto Dstny), Harold Martin Lopez (Astana) and Antonio Jesus Soto (Kern Pharma) chasing close behind.
Dylan Teuns (Israel Premier Tech) and Xabier Berasategi (Euskaltel-Euskadi) bridged across but all of the attacking groups came together on the first climb, the category 2 Puerto de Cabezabellosa (100.1km, average 4.9%) with only a small lead on the peloton.
The race came back together before the day's breakaway began to take shape ahead of the summit. At the front were Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Sylvain Moniquet (Lotto Dstny), Mikel Bizkarra (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Pablo Castrillo (Kern Pharma) and Filippo Zana (Jayco-AlUla).
Moniquet led over the summit with Zana and Bizkarra behind, and the five riders were allowed to go free by the peloton but were given a maximum lead of 3:30 before Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe began to bring the gap down because Armirail was threatening to take the race lead, having started the day in eighth place overall, 31 seconds behind leader Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike).
Moniquet took the maximum points on the category 1 Alto de Piornal after 54km of racing to move into the virtual lead of the mountains classification
The breakaway's lead melted in the heat of the valley, dropping under two minutes halfway into the stage, but began to go out again as the five leaders reached the third climb, the category 3 Puerto de Miravete (8km at 4.5%).
Armirail attacked 700 metres before the summit and the injection of pace brought their lead back out to three minutes.
However, Armirail attacked again, bringing Castrillo along for the ride, and the pair left their three companions well behind with 38km to go.
That lead began to vanish in the closing kilometres, however. At the intermediate sprint with 15.4km to go, Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) pipped race leader Van Aert to earn the maximum points, closing the gap to the Belgian in the green jersey competition to six points.
With 10km to go, the two leaders had just over a minute with much more climbing still to come.
A reduced bunch blasted onto the concrete section of the ascent with 5km to go just seconds behind the two leaders.
Roglič set the pace in the final 4km but Felix Gall (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) made his move on the steepest stretches but could not resist the pace set by the Slovenian.
Inside 3km to go, Gall lost touch, leaving Roglič alone with Enric Mas and Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny) at the front.
As the gradient eased, João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech), Gall and Mikel Landa made it back to the leaders.
Landa launched first but was overtaken by Van Eetvelt, but Roglič showed his quality and snatched the win.
Laura Weislo has been with Cyclingnews since 2006 after making a switch from a career in science. As Managing Editor, she coordinates coverage for North American events and global news. As former elite-level road racer who dabbled in cyclo-cross and track, Laura has a passion for all three disciplines. When not working she likes to go camping and explore lesser traveled roads, paths and gravel tracks. Laura specialises in covering doping, anti-doping, UCI governance and performing data analysis.
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