Primoz Roglic, a triple former champion, emerged victorious in the first mountain stage of the current Vuelta a Espana. He displayed his prowess on the challenging climb to Pico Villuercas on a Tuesday. During the intense, sun-soaked 170km fourth stage, which marked the peloton’s first crossing from Portugal into Spain, Roglic overtook Lennert van Eetvelt to clinch victory. Van Eetvelt from Belgium, poised for his first ever Grand Tour stage win, prematurely celebrated his presumed victory, only to witness Roglic’s late surge past him at the finish line.
Roglic, the Slovenian rider, assumed the overall race lead, taking the red jersey from Belgium’s Wout Van Aert. He expressed satisfaction to Eurosport about winning, although it was not his main objective. He said he felt a sense of fulfilment seeing his colleagues battling hard in the challenging weather conditions.
As the general classification contenders made their moves for the first time, Roglic established himself firmly in the lead. Portugal’s Joao Almeida finished third on stage and currently holds second place in the overall ratings, lagging by eight seconds. Enrique Mas of Spain also put forth a robust finish and is third overall, trailing by 32 seconds. His compatriot, Mikel Landa, made a strikingly late surge at the front, although he was eventually overtaken.
However, defending champion Sepp Kuss from America had a less-than-ideal day, losing 28 seconds to Roglic and falling more than a minute behind in the overall standing. Amid four categorised climbs, a significant turning point came with the capture of the remaining duo from a breakaway group – Pablo Castrillo and Bruno Armirail. The 14km Pico Villuercas climb, with gradients reaching up to 20 per cent in some sections, eliminated several big players from the leading group.
While Landa instigated the very first attack within a kilometer, he failed to maintain it. This left Van Eetvelt, Roglic, Mas, Almeida and Felix Gall battling for the stage. Irish riders Eddie Dunbar and Darren Rafferty were ranked 41st and 118th respectively in this stage and stand 38th and 108th overall.