It was another tough climb at the finish of stage four of the Vuelta a España, the longest one so far, 209 km from Estepona to Vejer de la Frontera. In the last four kilometers, that included hard slopes, short descents and winding curves, the main protagonists were the Classics specialists.

Winner was Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), who proved to be faster than Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Daniel Moreno (Katusha) on the final meters, while Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEDGE) came home tenth and kept the leader’s jersey.

For Team Colombia-Coldeportes, who didn’t send a rider in the escape for the first time at this edition of the Vuelta, best finisher of the day was Rodolfo Torres – 40th – 45 seconds behind the winner.

“It was a very hard finish, a punchy climb, which we tried, with the help of the team, to tackle in a good position,” Rodolfo Torres said. “Unfortunately, we were held back by a crash that occurred just a couple of kilometers before, and we had to spend chasing some valuable energies in the view of the final climb”. Torres has now moved to 37th overall, 3:05 behind Esteban Chaves.

In an intense day with high temperatures, six men – Markel Irizar (Trek), Mickaël Delage (FDJ), Jimmy Engoulvent (Europcar), Nikolas Maes (Etixx-Quickstep), Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida) and Bert-Jan Lindeman (LottoNL-Jumbo) – received the peloton’s permission to go in the break, were they quickly established a 13-minute gap, before Orica-GreenEdge began working to cut into that margin. With around 100 km left, Peter Sagan’s Tinkoff-Saxo came at the forefront and successfully caught the escapees before hitting the last 15 kilometers.

On the final ascent, Movistar and Katusha took command of the pack, with the first guiding Valverde towards the victory, after controlling the attacks that came on the slopes and reeling in Samuel Sanchez (BMC) and Nicolas Roche (Team Sky). During the day, Leonardo Duque hit the ground, fortunately without any consequences, while he was rejoining the bunch following a puncture.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, stage five – from Rota to Alcala da Guadaira (167 km) – will let the riders catch their breath. The day is a flat one, except the final kilometers, where a rising road will see the sprinters fight for victory.