Tejay van Garderen (BMC) took his first ever win in a WorldTour race when he became a surprise winner of today's highly anticipated queen stage of the Volta a Catalunya. While repeated attacks from the race favourites failed to make a difference, the American joined the counterattack from Romain Bardet (Ag2r) whom he beat in a sprint at the top of the final climb to the finish while Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) led Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) across the line to take third. Rodriguez defended his overall lead.

 

With overall wins in the Tour of California and USA Pro Challenge and 5th place and a white jersey in the Tour de France, Tejay van Garderen already has an excellent palmares but until now the big WorldTour win has been missing. Today he finally added a win at the highest level to his palmares when he became a surprise winner of the queen stage in the Volta a Catalunya.

 

With his 4th place in yesterday's stage, van Garderen had already proved that he is in excellent condition and so he was always well-placed when the war broke out on the final climb to the finish. He failed to respond immediately when big favourites like Chris Froome (Sky) and Alberto Contador went on the attack but as Contador was unable to get rid of overall leader Joaquim Rodriguez, the pace always went down again, allowing more riders to rejoin from behind.

 

Romaijn Bardet (Ag2r) exploited one of these standstills to make a counterattack and van Garderen was the only one to respond. The duo managed to build up a gap inside the final kilometre while the war went on behind them.

 

Contador made one final surge inside the final few hundred metres and got very close to the two leaders in the end but he failed to reach them in time. Instead, van Garderen passed Bardet who has started the sprint, to take what is certainly the biggest win of his career.

 

Behind, Contador managed to put one second into Rodriguez while Nairo Quintana (Movistar) followed one second further adrift. Chris Froome (Sky) who had started the attacking and used his strong team to set a fierce pace faded back at the end and had to settle for 7th behind Andrew Talansky (Garmin).

 

Rodriguez excellent defence of his jersey means that he takes a four-second advantage over Contador into tomorrow's fifth stage. Van Garderen moves into third ahead of Bardet and Quintana while Froome is only 6th, 17 seconds behind the race leader.

 

Rodriguez faces an easier day tomorrow. The 218.2km stage is a long affair but despite the rolling terrain, it is predominantly downhill for most of the day. However, the riders have to go up the category 2 Alt de Lilla in the finale and from there it is a fast 8.9km downhill run to the finish in Valls.

 

The queen stage

After yesterday's small appetizer, the fourth stage was the big queen stage in the Spanish WorldTour race as the riders headed over 166.4km from Alp to the top of the HC climb Vallter 2000. Right from the beginning, the riders went up the category 1 Collada de Tosses and on their way to the finish, they did another two category 1 and a category 2 climb before the ascent to the finish 2200m above altitude.

 

After bad weather had been predicted earlier in the week, the queen stage of the race will be allowed to go on as planned as the riders headed out from the start in Alp in reasonable weather condition. There was four rather prominent non-starters as an ill Carlos Betancur (Ag2r), Chris Horner (Lampre) - who prefers to go home to continue his Giro preparation without aggravating his Achilles tendon injury - Tom Danielson (Garmin), and an ill Julian Arredondo (Trek) have all left the race.

 

An aggressive start

Right from the beginning, the riders headed up the brutal category 1 climb Collada de Toses and this was the scene of a very fast start of the stage. Last year Dan Martin had laid the foundation by going on the attack in a similar stage and many riders were keen to try to repeat that success.

 

It required a lot of hard work for the major teams led by Joaquim Rodriguez' Katusha to keep things unders control and after 11km of racing, they finally allowed a small four-rider group to go clear. Ruben Plaza (Movistar), Thomas De Gendt (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Stef Clement (Belkin), and Maxime Mederel (Europcar) took off to form a very strong quartet of climbers.

 

The breaks fights hard to get clear

However, several teams had missed the move and they had no intent of letting the group go clear. After 16km of racing, the gap was only 20 seconds and when they crested the summit of the climb after 22km, it was down to 18 seconds.

 

On the descent, the peloton finally accepted their fate and allowed the gap to open up. After 35km, it was 1.35 and at the 50km mark, it had reached 4.10.

 

Katusha take control

As it emerged that Brett Lancaster (Orica-GreenEDGE) had left the race, Katusha started to control the situation. The gap reached a maximum of 4.15 but at the 67km mark, it was down to 3.20.

 

As the riders went up the Category 2 Alt de Canes, the Russian team kept the gap stable at around 3.30. Clement took maximum points at the top ahead of De Gendt, Mederel and Plaza.

 

Acevedo makes a move

After the climb, the gap came down to 3.10 but as rain started to fall on the race, the peloton took it  a bit easier. When they started the category 1 Alt de Oix, the gap had reached a maximum of 4.10.

 

Janier Acevedo (Garmin) made an attack on the climb but he was quickly brought back. Instead, ander Armee (Lotto Belisol) took off but he was brought back by the time, the peloton reached the top.

 

Sky in control

At the top the gap had come down to 2.55 as Clement again took maximum points, this time ahead of Mederel, Plaza and De Gendt. Kanstantsin Siutsou led the peloton across the line as Sky had now taken control of the chase.

 

Tinkoff-Saxo decided that it was time to up the pace to prepare a win for their captain Alberto Contador who had done nothing to hide that today's stage suited him much better than yesterday's. The yellow-clad team rode hard up the Category 1 Alt de Rocabruna, bringing the gap down to just 30 seconds at the top.

 

Serpa makes his move

With the peloton breathing down his neck, De Gendt made a solo attack 21km from the finish and he managed to build up a 30-second gap over his chasers and reopen his advantage to the peloton to 1.00 in just 3km. Meanwhile, Jose Serpa (Lampre-Merida) attacked from the peloton and he bridged across the chasing group.

 

On the long gradual uphill that preceded the final climb, Serpa reached the three chasers. He continued at a fast pace that saw Mederel and Clement fall off and they were ultimately caught.

 

Rolland opens the aggression

With 15km to go, Serpa and Plaza were only 7 seconds behind De Gendt who had now opened his advantage over the peloton to 1.30. The duo managed to make the junction and the trio had a 1.15 gap by the time they started the final climb.

 

Inside the final 10km of the stage, Pierre Rolland (Europcar) was the first to attack from the peloton and he managed to build up a 10-second gap. He was joined by Warren Barguil (Giant-Shimano) and George Bennett (Cannondale) and the trio managed to stay clear for some time.

 

Back together

It was mission impossible though and when 6km remained, both trios were brought back by the peloton. Katusha and Sky were doing the damage as they set a hard tempo all the way up the climb.

 

Inside the final four kilometres, it was David Lopez on the front for Sky, with Froome, Rodriguez, Quintana, and Contador lined out behind him. However, Barguil was still riding well and the Frenchman gave it another go.

 

Froome attacks

When he passed the 3km to go mark, he was 11 seconds ahead but it had dropped to 8 seconds one kilometre further up the road. His days as leader ended when Froome used the steep section on the penultimate kilometre to attack but the Brit failed to get clear.

 

Instead, Contador gave it a go but Rodriguez and Quintana were quick to respond. As Contador was unable to shake the race leader, he sat down and allowed more riders to rejoin from behind.

 

This was when Bardet exploited the situation to make a wise move that only van Garderen responded to. The duo stayed away to the finish, with the American taking the win, while Contador's late attack was only enough to put one second into Rodriguez.