Stage 4 of the Vuelta a España 2024: Roglic wins first mountain race

With his win at the end of the first mountain stage of the 2024 Vuelta a España from Plasencia to Pico Viluercas, Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) also took the overall leader's red jersey.

Coming to the finish line at Pico Viluercas, Roglic was challenged by Lenert van Eetvelt (Lotto Destiny) on the line. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) was third on the stage. The Portuguese is now second overall, eight seconds behind Roglic. Third here is Spaniard Enric Mas (Movistar), 32 seconds behind Roglic.

Primoz Roglic’s Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team took charge of the 170.2km mountain stage and was largely responsible for ensuring the five-man breakaway group did not grow too large. On the final climb of the Category 1 Pico Viluerkas, Roglic often showed himself at the top and completed a strong team performance. Last year’s winner, Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease an Bike Team), crossed the finish line in 11th, 28 seconds behind.

This is how the fourth stage of the Vuelta a Espana 2024 went

After three days in Portugal, the Tour of Spain entered the Spanish mountains for the first time – and eventually reached the mountain finish at Pico Vilorcas.

After many attempts and attacks, a five-man breakaway group was finally formed with Bruno Armeril (Decathlon AG2R La Mondalie), Sylvain Moniquet (Lotto Destiny), Filippo Zanna (Jaico-Alola), Pablo Castrillo (Kern Pharma) and Mikel Bizcarra (Euskaltel-Euskadi).

After that, this quintet also decided to classify the mountains among themselves. The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team took over on the field and organized the follow-up work.

With the chasers closing in, Bruno Amerial attacked from the leading group with 39km to go. Only Castrillo reacted and went. The breakaway's lead was around 2:15min. Before the sprint classification at Rotoras, the field caught up with Moniquet, Zanna and Castrillo.

While Armirail and Castrillo took the sprint classification, a bitter battle broke out in the field between Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) for third place and the remaining 15 points, which Groves took.

The two leaders started the final 14.6km climb to Pico Viluercas with a gap of around 1:20 minutes.

Primoz Roglic took control of the final climb.

About eight kilometres from the summit, Soudal Quick-Step, Movistar and Lidl-Trek moved forward and took over the pursuit. After that, UAE Team Emirates took over the lead of the chasers. In the first 300 metres of the steep section of Pico Viercas, about seven kilometres from the finish, Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates) accelerated and opened up the first gaps. At 4.6 kilometres below the summit, Sivakov managed to catch up with the breakaways. Roglic then moved forward and took over the leadership of a small group before the steepest section. Felix Gall (Decathlon-AG2R) managed to pull away a little, but was caught and stopped shortly after by the group of Roglic, Maas and Van Eetvelt. Gall was closed in – at the start.

Behind them was a trio with Almeida, Gal and Mathieu Ricciello (Israel Premier Tech) who managed to catch up with the leaders in the final kilometres, as did Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick Step). The Spaniard took advantage of the moment and attacked the group towards the goal. Lennert van Eetvelt reacted and for a moment looked like the sure winner – until Roglic passed him in the final metre.

Results of the fourth stage of the Vuelta a España 20204

Daily arrangement
1. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)
2. Lennert van Eetvelt Street (Lotto Destiny).
3. Joao Almeida (Emirates Team)

red shirt | Overall Rating
1. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)
2. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) + 0:08
3. Enric Mas (Movistar) + 0:32

white jersey | Young Talent Ranking
1. Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victor)
2. Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto Destiny) + 0:03
3. Matthias Skilmoz (Lidl Journey) + 0:20

Green Jersey | Scoring
1. Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) 111 points
2. Caden Groves (Alpecin-Dessoninck) 105 points
3. Luis Angel Mate (Euscaltil-Euskadi) 35 points

White and blue jersey | Mountain classification
1. Sylvain Moniquet (Lotto Destiny) 16 points
2. Filippo Zanna (Jaico Al-Ula Team) 11 points
3. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) 10 points

Photos: Photonews.be