Dominant Buitrago cracks Almeida and takes double victory in Tour of Valencia

After two grueling stages, Stage 4 was supposed to be slightly less demanding, though in this part of Spain, that’s always relative. With rolling terrain in every direction, even a stage that seems suited to the fast men still racked up over 3,000 meters of climbing.

One Dutch rider, Lars Boven (Alpecin-Deceuninck), was absent from the start, having abandoned the race along with five other lesser-known names. Twenty kilometers in, the peloton had three fewer riders, but this time due to a breakaway. The attackers were Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech), Jon Agirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Hugo Uriarte (Equipo Kern Pharma).

The peloton allowed them to build a significant gap, with UAE Team Emirates XRG taking control in support of race leader João Almeida. Lidl-Trek also contributed to the chase as the race approached the Alto de Vistabella, one of the steepest climbs midway through the stage. As soon as the road started climbing, the peloton saw the first attacks of the day.

Will Barta (Movistar), Davide Piganzoli (Polti-VisitMalta), and Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) all attempted attacks, but in the end, it was Pablo Castrillo (Movistar) who successfully bridged across to the front. The aggressive Spaniard, a two-time stage winner in the most recent Vuelta a España, started the day ninth in the general classification, 1:03 behind Almeida, which immediately put the peloton on high alert.

Still, he managed to ride away two minutes from the big group with his characteristic way of cycling and thus virtually take the yellow, but Pavel Sivakov and co decided to step up anyway. When Bahrain Victorious and Jayco AlUla also called in some more men to help chase, Castrillo’s fate was sealed. After an impressive solo effort, the Movistar rider was reeled in with 10 kilometers to go.

Despite all the hard riding uphill, some of the faster men were still hanging on, so the focus in the peloton was still on a group sprint. INEOS Grenadiers tried to avoid the sprint by pushing hard uphill. Thymen Arensman, among others, was unable to make a gap, after which Jefferson Cepeda (Movistar) saw his chance.

Unlike the men from INEOS, Cepeda did manage to create a nice gap with his explosiveness. The pocket climber ran out to a 10-second lead. At 35 seconds behind leader Almeida, Cepeda was also a threat to the classification. It was then also UAE Team Emirates and Bahrain Victorious, on behalf of Buitrago, who were in full pursuit.

However, Cepeda fought back and the finish was fast approaching. The Movistar rider had a 12-second lead with three kilometers to go. It promised to be close. The fact that the finish line was uphill was not an advantage for the man in front. So Cepeda fell silent in the final kilometer and was outpaced by Buitrago. The Colombian popped Almeida from his wheel, thus seizing the stage win and the lead in the general classification. Lidl-Trek duo Jonathan Milan and Jako Söderqvist finished second and third;