Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) sealed victory on the fourth stage of the Vuelta a Espana, beating Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) in the tricky uphill finish to Vejer de la Frontera. Daniel Moreno (Katusha) pipped Nicolas Roche (Team Sky) for third.
Valverde bided his time inside the peloton, sitting behind his teammate Nairo Quintana on the run to the final ramp of the undulating climb. He launched his winning move from a long way back, skimming past Roche - who was flagging after an earlier attack – and taking the inside line around the final corner. Sagan was quick to go with the Spanish champion but Valverde’s superior climbing abilities paid dividends and he crossed the line comfortably ahead of Sagan.
“Sometimes it’s our team setting the tempo, like on the first day, today we stayed a bit more calm we know the Vuelta is long and we need to keep strength. We sat with Katusha and they were good but so were we. We didn’t need to accelerate too hard and for the last 200 metres I just flew,” Valverde said after stepping on the podium.
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“I knew it was him (Sagan) because I kept getting flashes of his hair. I know in these finishes that Sagan is strong but I knew with 200 metres to go that this was my victory.”
After a predominantly flat day, there was a sharp right-hand turn and the terrain went skywards with just four kilometres to go. Several attacks came off the front but the most concerted of those early moves was one from Pello Bilbao. The Caja Rural rider never got too much rope, dangling in front of the peloton for the next two kilometres.
As Bilbao was reeled in by the efforts of Sagan and the Katusha team, Samuel Sanchez (BMC) immediately countered, taking Roche in his wheel. They were initially helped by a small descent and the pair made it inside the final kilometre but the peloton was close behind and when the road kicked up Sanchez was quickly taken back. Roche pushed on, looking to take the red jersey from Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) but saw any chance of victory, and bonus seconds disappear moments later.
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