Today saw the second of two consecutive summit finishes in the Vuelta a Andalucia (Ruta del Sol) and the 199.8-kilometer stage four resulted in a thrilling finish as Sky’s Chris Froome wrestled the leader’s jersey from Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) by a mere second.

Bob Jungels climbed to a superb 14th place only 1’49” back; it was enough to launch him into 11th in the general classification (and a top 7 would have been possible without the untimely mechanical at the end of the second stage).

Despite his stellar finish, the day did not begin well for the Luxembourger; from the warmth of the team bus after a wet, cold and epic day he explained what happened:

“It was really an up and down day for me. It started with some pretty bad weather; it was freezing, freezing cold and a very fast start so for the first 50k no breakaway went.  It finally warmed a little bit, but the road was still wet and in a downhill in a real fast corner I was going maybe 60-65km/h and crashed. I didn’t even touch the brake and my rear wheel slid out; I couldn’t do anything. I scraped my right hip and knee, but no bad injuries so I could continue. I found my way back to the bunch pretty fast.”

“It was a very hard day and the weather made for an even harder day,” agreed director Kim Andersen, “there was rain and 6-7 degrees (Celsius) at the start and it was simply freezing out there for the riders. Fortunately, it was a little bit better by the finish.”

The penultimate stage four began under dismal weather and with 200 undulating kilometers ahead, and an ending climb dotted with insane gradients, it became a hard man’s race.

The final ascent was shorter than yesterday’s long mountain slog, but the slope sharper, and the 16-20% gradients in the final four kilometers left many riders weaving under the strain. There was simply no easy way to the top.

Jungels climbed the punishing uphill within his limit; he knew an attempt to stay with the top mountain goats could prove disastrous and instead cunningly played his pace.

He added: “The rhythm was really fast on the last climb, but I feel like the harder and longer the race is, the better it is for me because my condition is really good. At the end a lot of guys were at their limits and I felt like I still had some reserves.  Again, it was a very hard climb, but I managed to hang on for a few kilometers with these guys and then just continued my own rhythm until the top. I am really satisfied with how I felt.”

The tough finish dictated Trek Factory Racing’s tactic for today’s race, plus the fact the team is only five-strong made it difficult and futile to join a breakaway, explained Andersen.

“With only five riders we decided that it would be better for Bob and Haimar [Zubeldia] to wait until the final climb and not try to get into a breakaway,” he said. “Fabio [Silvestre] needed to save his energy for tomorrow, and so that left only Jesse [Sergent] and Stijn [Devolder] to try to go.  It took a long time and a lot of attacks - nearly one hour before the group went away - and sometimes we were there, sometimes not; with only two riders to get in the break it’s not easy.”

Tomorrow Ruta del Sol ends with a flat stage and Trek Factory Racing will rally around the fast legs of Fabio Silvestre for an expected bunch sprint finish. After a week that started with unexpected lows, they will try to continue to build on Jungels’ strong finishes and end on a much higher note.