Vuelta a España (st. 4)

Movistar Team covers with great attention and no setbacks another ride for the fastmen, before Wednesday's first La Vuelta mountain-top finish this year on Teruel soil.

A milimeter sprint rewarded Dutchman Fabio Jakobsen (DQT) ahead of Sam Bennett (BOH) at the end of stage four in the 2019 Vuelta a España, a 175km route from Cullera to El Puig with only two major difficulties: the Puerto del Oronet (Cat-3) and the brief, yet severe thunderstorm affecting the race during the ascent.

The Movistar Team rode again with great consistency, putting Erviti, Soler, Pedrero, Oliveira, Rojas and Arcas at the front into the climb and its subsequent descent. Alejandro Valverde, 18th over the line, and Nairo Quintana finished without losing any time, both still fully in GC contention as the Colombian sits 2nd overall -2″ behind Roche (SUN)- while the Spaniard remains within a minute in 12th.

La Vuelta will tackle on Wednesday its first mountain finish, with the new side of the climb to the Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre (Cat-1), 12km at nearly 8% to end a 170km trek from L’Eliana with no big climbs, but full of difficult uphill sections.

⚽? ¡Miren quiénes se encontraron en la llegada de la cuarta etapa de #LaVuelta19 en El Puig! Carlos Bacca visitó a @NairoQuinCo en el autobús de Movistar Team. ? pic.twitter.com/toMKzwO6IL

— Movistar Team (@Movistar_Team) August 27, 2019

REACTION / Alejandro Valverde:

“It went pretty well. There’s always some stress at the end with the winds and the high speeds, but that’s normal. We’re satisfied. Javalambre? I don’t know the climb, we’ll see how it goes. Its length and gradients should make for some gaps already. We continue to go day-by-day – the team is doing fine at the moment, it’s just about recovering well after each effort, we’re OK so far. A good stage for me tomorrow? It depends. Let’s see how we plan our strategy.”

Cover picture (c): Photo Gomez Sport