Classification leader Jonas Vingegaard spent a few seconds on attacker Joao Almeida. He now stands for 44 seconds, with two more stages ahead.
The sprint/walking stage became ‘exciting’ for a moment, when bonus seconds could be picked up in between. Vingegaard was involved and just picked up four. That succeeded with playful convenience, because the other classification men seemed to sleep. As a result, he ran a few seconds on Almeida in the general classification.
Commotion in Peloton
At just over 30 km before the finish there was suddenly commotion. Suddenly it tore in the front in the peloton. The riders of Alpecin-DECEUNINCK crashed hard and fingered. UAE Team Emirates-XRG had to get everything out of the closet again and it was Almeida herself who had to do his bit to bring everything together again. It was clear that the peloton saw a fan hazard on the long, straight roads.
It had to turn out on a sprint and that happened because of the peloton’s pace suddenly at a speed of 60 km per hour: Philipsen turned out to be the strongest.
Is the Vuelta still exciting? Jonas Vingegaard loses ten seconds on Joao Almeida, phenomenon of Filippo Ganna, rushes to win in a shortened time trial
So Vingegaard retained the red leader’s jersey. The Dane of Visma – Lease A Bike now has a 44 second lead on the Portuguese. Two more stages follow: a heavy mountain rit and the final ride to Madrid, which normally ends in a mass sprint and in which the rankings no longer change.
Reaction Jonas Vingegaard
“It was a bit messy and we were in the front and went for it,” Vingegaard said at Eurosport after the ride won by the Belgian Jasper Philipsen. “It was not really planned, but we drive as much as possible in the front to stay out of trouble. There were also attempts there to form a fan. Maybe Almeida and his teammates were out of position.”
Vingegaard: “I feel pretty good. The legs were good and hopefully even better tomorrow. This was a bonus, but it would surprise me if those four seconds would decide the Vuelta.”
Cyclist return to Spain2.WT
Again stage victory cyclist Bredewold in Tour of the Ardèche
After the third, Mischa Bredewold also won the fourth stage of the Tour of the Ardèche. It was an individual time trial over more than 20 kilometers in and around Vals-les-Bains. Bredewold, who comes out for SD Worx – Protime, was thirteen seconds faster than the Française Maeva Squiban.
The Italian Monica Trinca Colonel finished third, just before the Dutch Femke de Vries. Bredewold took over in the rankings from the Italian Eleonora Ciabocco. She has a 26 -second lead over Squiban. The round of the Ardèche ends on Sunday.
