"From today every finish is a finish with the leaders. We have to study the stages to get them right and find the moments to attack."

Those were the words of Astana's Mikel Landa after stage four at the Vuelta a España. Landa followed Fabio Aru and 25 top riders after a heart-pounding 4k finale on a long and hot day along the Atlantic.

The breakaway faced straight roads and a slight tailwind, not the normal sea gales that blow across 4,400km of open ocean between South America and Europe. Six escapees stayed away from a conservative peloton until turning around on the sandy, urbanized peninsula of Cádiz to race back south into a headwind.

Caught inside 60k, when the wind turned back to favorable, the peloton waited for the final 10k to resume hard action ahead of an uphill finish into the whitewalled village of Vejer. Not a conventional mass sprint, but always uphill or turning, favoring those who can wait and wait and wait again patiently to then attack and again attack at the final two turns, just 150m and 50m from the line respectively.

Fabio Aru finished with the same official time as stage winner Alejandro Valverde of Spain, as did Landa. Overall Aru is 10th, 47 seconds behind Esteban Chaves of Colombia. Landa sits four seconds back from his teammate.