Going into the Vuelta a Espana, Trek had openly admitted that Julian Arredondo was not at 100%. Nonetheless, he found himself in the overall top 10 before today's stage but a bad day saw him drop out of GC contention.

The searing heat continued in the Vuelta a España for day four, a 164.7-kilometer hilly stage that began with a flat 120 kilometers before hitting the ascents and narrow, twisty roads. The day’s breakaway was easily absorbed on the final uphill, an eight-kilomter category two climb, where the battle for the stage win began to play out with four riders breaking clear. 

It was a dangerous move that included GC favorite Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), and the long, technical descent made the chase difficult. But once the quartet exited the downhill onto the final flat 10 kilometers to the finish line in Córdoba, it was not long before the decimated peloton had reeled them back.

The expected bunch sprint was on, however, the peloton was down to a third of its riders after the heat and hills took a tough levy again, and the pure sprinters were not in the game.

John Degenkolb (Giant Shimano) easily took the victory, winning by a few bike lengths, while overall leader Michael Matthews (Orica GreenEdge) successfully defended the red jersey with a third place finish.

The higest finisher for Trek Factory Racing was Bob Jungels who sprinted to ninth from the vastly reduced peloton, and Haimar Zubeldia safely rolled across the line in 44th, moving him into seventh place in the overall classification. Mysteriously missing from the 60 or so riders that arrived first to the finish was Julian Arredondo; he just did not have the legs and was unable to get over the category two climb with the front peloton.

“Julian [Arredondo] had a bad day, and could not follow on the climb," sports director Adriano Baffi said. " At the end the climb was a bit too hard for most of the guys, and just Bob and Haimar finish in the front peloton. It was again a very hot and hard day.

"Today the plan was to see how things went in the last climb, and hopefully Jasper, Felline and Fabian could get over the top with the group. But Felline did not feel well, and for Fabian and Jasper it was too much. 

"I pushed Bob a bit at the end to do the sprint – I know him, and I know he can make a good sprint – but he was in bad position and in the end he was 9th. But okay, we can say the only negative for today was the bad day of Julian. On the good side, maybe now he is more free to try something in a stage.”

The heat has been a factor for the majority of the peloton, and today the temperature again hit insane digits, with no relief expected in the forecast for tomorrow. 

“We also hope that this temperature will ease," Baffi said. "Our team is mostly our Classics’ racers, and we are suffering maybe more than others. This is not an excuse, but the fact is we just don’t handle the heat as well. But looking forward we still have all our cards to play.”