Darwin Atapuma's dream of taking a Vuelta a Espana stage win may remain unfulfilled, but as the new leader of the race overall, the BMC Racing Team rider said he was more than satisfied with how he had performed on the race's second summit finish of San Andres de Teixido.
Second on the stage after he attacked the main break late on the final climb, Atapuma could not catch Direct Energie stage winner Lilian Calmejane, crossing the line 15 seconds down on the French rider.
However, his advantage of nearly two minutes on the main group of favourites allowed Atapuma to become Colombia's seventh leader of the Vuelta, and the fourth leader this year in as many stages, after Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky), Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) and Ruben Fernández (Movistar Team).
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Atapuma now also heads an impressive line-up of Colombians in the uppermost reaches of the Vuelta's ranking, with Esteban Chaves (Orica-BikeExchange) in fourth and Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) in fifth.
Having attacked with the rest of the 21 rider break in the first hour of the very hilly stage four, Atapuma said he had "not believed that I could get to the finish when we went for it, but I wanted to go for the stage win and that was my dream, my objective here in the Vuelta before the race.
"Now I've got the leader's jersey, it's like I've won a stage. I'm very happy, grateful to everybody, to God and my girlfriend Jimena for all their support." He also thanked "the Atapuma family and BMC for having given me this chance" before rounding off his lengthy list of acknowledgements by dedicating his spell in the lead "to my mother, who I'm sure is supporting me as she has always done."
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