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Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) launched a superb late transfer to assert the victory on stage 4 of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana in Portell de Morella.
Buitrago left in a single day chief João Almeida within the mud after UAE Team Emirates spent many of the day controlling the breakaway and snatched the race chief’s jersey from the Portuguese rider.
Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), led out for the stage by teammate Jakob Söderqvist, completed a distant second place at 12 seconds whereas the Swede completed third within the uphill sprint to the road after turning himself inside out to carry onto the lead group within the ultimate kilometres.
“It was tremendous robust – we managed it rather well,” Milan stated. “I used to be dropped a couple of occasions and the group at all times introduced me again. I used to be at all times on the restrict. In the top, we had been in a very good place. Jakob had actually good legs at the moment and had just a little hole within the final 500m. I used to be pondering he may [win] as a result of he was feeling higher than me. Then I noticed Buitrago coming from behind tremendous quick. I attempted to experience my very own tempo for the 400 metres nonetheless to experience to the end.”
Buitrago now leads Almeida by eight seconds within the general classification with teammate Pello Bilbao in third at 29 seconds.
How it Unfolded
Four climbs had been on faucet in the course of the 181-kilometre stage 4 of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, with riders set to climb the Alto de la Bandereta, Col del la basa, Alto de Chodos and Alto de Vistabella earlier than the end in Portell de Morella.
Five riders dropped out of the race earlier than the stage: Lars Boven (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Michael Leonard (Ineos Grenadiers), Iñigo Elosegui (Kern Pharma) and Xabier Isasa and Mikel Bizkarra (Euskaltel-Euskadi). Not far into the stage, one other Euskaltel rider deserted, Márton Dina.
Attacks flew from kilometre zero, with Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech) and Diego Uriarte (Kern Pharma) rising from a bunch of a dozen to type the primary escape. They had been joined by Jon Agirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and had been shortly given a most lead of eight minutes.
Agirre led over the primary climb, whereas Uriarte led over the Coll de la Basa and thru the dash in Atzeneta del Maestrat after 75.2km.
UAE Team Emirates, Lidl-Trek and Movistar cooperated to carry the breakaway’s lead down to 2 minutes earlier than the Alto de Chodos, and sensing the hazard, Agirre attacked solo with 93km to go.
He led over the Alto de Chodos to tie for the lead of the mountains classification with Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious). Agirre was nonetheless solo on the Alto de Vistabella, the place there was a time bonus dash on the summit.
However, the motion started to select up within the peloton on the climb, with Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) and Davide Piganzoli (Polti-Visit Malta) making a transfer earlier than being shortly reeled in. Pablo Castrillo (Movistar) had higher luck and bridged throughout to Agirre.
The pair had slightly below two minutes with 50km to go, however because the hole started to fall slowly, Castrillo left Agirre behind with 39km to go and buried himself to carry onto the lead. He held 30 seconds nonetheless with 17km to race as UAE Team Emirates led the chase.
Castrillo missed a flip and needed to bunny-hop a visitors island however nonetheless powered on till 9.5km to go when the chasing bunch had him in sight.
Ineos Grenadiers then set a brisk tempo earlier than Movistar’s Jefferson Cepeda made a transfer and managed to open up a powerful lead that was nonetheless at 15 seconds with 3km to go.
Inside the ultimate kilometre, Jakob Söderqvist (Lidl-Trek) swept previous Cepeda with Buitrago on his wheel, after which could not maintain the tempo of the Spaniard.
Results
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