Thomas de Gendt (Lotto Soudal) brought back memories of his ride on the Stelvio in the Giro d’Italia in 2012 with another mountain top stage win on stage 4 of the Volta a Catalunya. The Belgian was in the early break and had the better of his companions on the queen stage to finish alone on the Port Ainé.
The Lotto Soudal rider, who enjoyed rather unpredictable form in recent years, finished 1:08 ahead of Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Richie Porte (BMC Racing). Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) finished fourth.
In the overall standings, Quintana moved into the race lead after dropping his rivals on the final climb. Overnight race leader Daniel Martin (Etixx-Quickstep) was unable to hang onto the relentless attacks in the closing stages and dropped down to fourth in GC.
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The 2015 Tour de France winner Chris Froome (Team Sky) was unable to respond to Quintana and Contador but he was able to set his own pace on the 18.5km climb to finish in eighth position on the stage.
After four stages, Quintana leads Contador by 8 seconds with Porte in third at 17 seconds.
De Gendt, who started the day almost 20 minutes down in the general classification, only had the stage win on his mind as he battled up the long final ascent. He battled through several difficult moments, and even when a fellow breakaway companion, Pieter Weening (Roompot) opened up a minute’s lead the Belgian remained unflappable. He narrowed the gap to Weening with the help of Imanol Erviti Ollo (Movistar) before dispatching with both riders within the final two kilometres.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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