Vuelta a San Juan: Gaviria wins stage 4

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Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) took his second victory on the Vuelta a San Juan in Argentina on Wednesday when he proved quickest in the bunch sprint at the end of a rapid stage 4 to San Agustin del Valle Fertil. The Colombian had too much for Rudy Barbier (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Alvaro Hodeg in the finishing straight, while Hodeg's Deceuninck-QuickStep teammate finished safely in the peloton to maintain his lead atop the overall standings.

In Pocito on Monday, Gaviria had to make do without the services of his regular lead-out man Max Richeze, who was held up in a crash on the run-in. The Argentinian champion played a pivotal role here, and his efforts in the final kilometre greatly helped to smooth Gaviria's path to victory as he piloted him into the last 200 metres.

"I think it was a perfect sprint," Gaviria said afterwards. "All of the team worked perfectly: Tom Bohli and Oliviero Troia did a great job controlling the break, and then Brandon McNulty, Sebastiano Molano and Max helped me in the sprint."

Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) was lined up on Gaviria's wheel, but he could do nothing to match the Colombian's almost elegant turn of speed on Calle General Acha. By the time Gaviria hit his stride, he already had a seemingly insurmountable lead. Barbier, winner on stage 1, put up game resistance but neither he nor Hodeg ever looked like threatening Gaviria. Sagan, for his part, had to settle for fourth place, drawing himself ever closer after taking sixth and fifth in the opening two bunch sprints. 

At 185 kilometres, the fourth installment of the Vuelta a San Juan was the longest of the week, bringing the race through the haunting Parque Provincial Ischigualasto en route to the finish in the heart of the province's 'Fertile Valley'. The peloton endured heavy rainfall in the finale, and conditions were treacherous at times in the closing kilometres as escapees Robin Carpenter (Rally) and Peio Goikoetxea (Fundación-Orbea) attempted to fend off a peloton where UAE Team Emirates, Bora-Hansgrohe and Deceuninck-QuickStep found common cause at the front. 

After Goikoetxea sat up, Carpenter was finally swept up by the peloton with a little over two kilometres to go. After a false start on Sunday, Gaviria would not be denied here. With two wins, he matches his haul from last year's race, although he will hope to add considerably more to that running tally than he did in 2019, when he finished the season with six victories.

There were some frissons in the battle for overall victory on the three-part climb through the Parque Provincial Ischigualasto, with Guillaume Martin and his Cofidis team sewing panic when they briefly split the peloton, although Evenepoel was always well positioned towards the head of affairs. Indeed, the 20-year-old even picked up a bonus second at the second intermediate sprint by leading the peloton across behind the two escapees.

Evenepoel thus carries a lead of 33 seconds over Filippo Ganna (Italy) and 1:09 over Oscar Sevilla (Medellin) as the Vuelta a San Juan breaks for a rest day on Thursday – included, perhaps, due to the three-hour transfer from Valle Fertil to San Juan the riders faced after stage 4. The race resumes with the summit finish atop the Alto Colorado on Friday. The leader there should seal overall victory. Evenepoel built up a healthy margin over the pure climbers in the Punta Negra time trial and will set out in a position of considerable dominance.

"We will see," Evenepoel said. "I think personally that Oscar Sevilla will be the biggest threat. It's quite a big advantage and I hope I can keep my lead."

How it unfolded

The stage brought the peloton from the vineyards of Jáchal to San Agustin del Valle Fertil by way of the Parque Provincial Ischigualasto, a national park famed for its fossils. Also dubbed the Valley of the Moon, the bare landscape provided a dramatic backdrop to the nub of the day's action before the peloton took on the long, steady and fast drop towards the finish in the so-called 'Fertile Valley' – a verdant respite in a semiarid landscape.

The 185km stage began at a brisk pace and the tempo scarcely let up thereafter on a day where it took more than 70km for the first break to take shape. The move eventually swelled to 15 riders, with Robin Carpenter (Rally Cycling), Augustin Fraysse (Argentina), Mattia Bais (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec) and Filippo Ganna (Italy) among their number, and they led onto the first of the day's three classified climbs in the haunting Parque Provincial Ischigualasto.

Carpenter led over the first, then César Nicolás Paredes (Team Medellin) scorched clear of the field to take the second. A more telling move came on the third and final ascent, where Guillaume Martin surged to the front, with Evenepoel among those tracking.

Martin's Cofidis team continued their forcing over the top of the climb; their sustained bout of pressure briefly split the peloton and helped to ensure the stage would finish well in advance of the fastest predicted schedule. 

The bunch reformed with 55km to go, and, shortly afterwards, the irrepressible Carpenter and Goikoetxea forged clear. They built up a maximum lead of 45 seconds, but the WorldTour teams were all eager to ensure a bunch sprint, and the day would belong to Gaviria.

Results

General classification