Basque rider outjumps the rest on steep finishing climb
Igor Anton (Euskaltel-Euskadi) won the fourth stage of the Vuelta a España between Málaga and Valdepeñas de Jaén after breaking away from the leaders on the steep climb to the finish. Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) was second, with Peter Velits (HTC-Columbia) in third.
“I’ve done well to come here one and half months ago to reconnoitre the end of today’s stage,” said Antón after his victory. “I absolutely had to stay calm in the downhill of the Alto de Valdepeñas even though I was worried by the attacks of Vincenzo Nibali and Luis Leon Sanchez.
“Fortunately they were brought back,” he continued, “and my team-mate Mikel Nieve has done a fantastic job for me to stay in the best position before the finishing wall. I remembered the finale of the Flèche Wallonne in April this year, where I made the mistake of attacking too early. It’s been a useful defeat. I’ve learned what not to do in these circumstances.
“I didn’t panic when I saw Uran and then Rodriguez attacking,” added the Basque rider. “I calculated my efforts pretty well although I was afraid of Nibali passing me at the very end.
“My goal for the Vuelta was to win a stage,” he said. “Rodriguez is very strong and I think he’s the favourite for the overall victory. As for myself, I have the condition for doing something good but I haven’t won any small stage race yet. I must improve gradually.”
Having spent two days on the Costa del Sol, the race skirted the coast road before heading inland to the hills to the west of Granada. Like the previous stage, the finish was a tough Ardennes classic style climb to the line.
After a flurry of unsuccessful attacks on the flat coastal road of the Cost del Sol, Guillaume Bonnafond (AG2R-La Mondiale), Sergio Carrasco (Andalucia-Cajasur), Dario Cataldo (Quick Step) and Dominik Roels (Milram) got away after 15km.
With Bonnafond the best placed rider in the break, 2’59” behind race leader Philippe Gilbert (OmegaPharma-Lotto), the Belgian’s team decided that this was to be the break of the day. As they turned inland at the resort of Torre del Mar after 25km the four riders led by 4 minutes; this had increased to 4’44” by the time they reached the foot of the 2nd category Alto de Zafarraya, the first climb of the day.
The quartet’s advantage stayed fairly static to the top of the climb; as the unclassified climb continued though, then descended on the rolling roads west of Granada, it grew to over 6 minutes before stabilising at around 5’45”.
After 114km the 3rd category climb to the Alto di Montefrío, the OmegaPharma-Lotto team began to increase the pace of the peloton. By the summit at 122km the lead of the leading four had been reduced to its previous level of around 4’45”; with 40km to go it had been cut to 4’29” and now began to fall more rapidly as the Katusha team came forward to join the chase.
With just under 25km to go, on the rolling roads on the approach to the 2nd category Alto de Valdepeñas de Jaén, Cataldo put in the first attack from within the breakaway group. He was followed by Bonnafond, and Roels and Garcia rejoined after a few kilometres; their lead was just 1’30” by now though, with the sprinters dropping off the back of the pursuing peloton.
As the climb began, with just over 16km to go, Garcia tried to escape the leaders, but it was Cataldo and Bonnafond again that got away. Behind them the Katusha team continued to lead the peloton, with Italian champion Filippo Pozzato at its head, and it continued to gain on the breakaways.
The pace set was too much for Cervélo TestTeam leader Carlos Sastre, whose team dropped behind to pace him back to the peloton.
Finally, 5km from the top of the climb, and with 12km to go the finish, the Cataldo and Bonnafond were finally captured; as the race approached the top of the climb the front group was reduced to just 24 riders, including Gilbert and most of the race favourites.
On the descent towards the final short, sharp climb, riders began to rejoin the back of the main group; Katusha riders Vladimir Karpets and Joaquin Rodriguez kept the pressure on at the front to prevent their hard work on the climb from being undone. Gilbert briefly managed to open a small gap off the front, but was pulled back before the bottom.
At the start of the climb to the finish the front group was reduced to just a few select riders, including Gilbert, Antón, Nibali, Rodriguez, and Luis Leon Sanchez and Rigoberto Uran (Caisse d’Epargne). With 2.5km to go Sanchez attacked and managed to get a good gap, but the hardest part of the cimb was still to come and Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel-Euskadi) was working to pull him back.
Karpets managed to haul back Sanchez with just under 1.5km to the finish, which was Uran’s cue to try his luck; as he passed under the flamme rouge marking the final kilometre though, he had a lead of just 5 seconds.
With 500m to go Rodriguez made his move, passing Uran and taking Antón and Nibali with him. In the final few hundred metres Antón took his turn to jump and took the stage victory; Rodriguez faded at the finish and was passed by Nibali and Velits.
Gilbert managed to finish in fifth place, doing enough to hold on to his red jersey as Antón and Rodriguez close to within 10 seconds.
Result stage 4
1. Igor Antón (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
2. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo @ 1s
3. Peter Velits (Svk) HTC-Columbia
4. Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha
5. Philippe Gilbert (Bel) OmegaPharma-Lotto @ 5s
6. Tejay Van Garderen (USA) HTC-Columbia @ 8s
7. Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa) Xacobeo-Galicia @ 12s
8. Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R-La Mondiale
9. Ruben Plaza (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne
10. Rigoberto Uran (Col) Caisse d’Epargne @ 19s
Standings after stage 4
1. Philippe Gilbert (Bel) OmegaPharma-Lotto
2. Igor Antón (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi @ 10s
3. Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha
4. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo @ 12s
5. Peter Velits (Svk) HTC-Columbia @ 16s
6. Tejay Van Garderen (USA) HTC-Columbia @ 29s
7. Xavier Tondo (Spa) Cervélo TestTeam @ 49s
8. Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank @ 50s
9. Ruben Plaza (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne @ 54s
10. Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa) Xacobeo-Galicia @ 55s