Laporte and Wellens’ late move is caught as Belgian wonderkid Crabbé beats big names again

This year’s Ruta del Sol has featured a somewhat atypical route, and stage 4 was another good example. There was climbing, but mainly in the opening part of the day.

In the first 30 kilometres the road rose steadily on a false flat, after which the riders hit a kind of plateau all the way to the finish in Pozoblanco. That meant racing could be made — but it had to happen very early.

It didn’t really, as three breakaway riders were given some freedom relatively quickly: Geoffrey Bouchard (TotalEnergies), Luca Cretti (MBH Bank) and Nil Gimeno (Equipo Kern Pharma). Not exactly a trio that would cause panic for teams like Visma | Lease a Bike, with Laporte among their ranks.

Their advantage steadily came down as the race progressed, and with 25 kilometres to go it was all over. Cretti fought the longest to stay clear, but he couldn’t hold on either. Groupama-FDJ — the team that had been waiting the longest for a win at this year’s Ruta del Sol — put riders on the front in pursuit of that breakthrough stage victory.

Sprinter Paul Penhoët came close on stage 3, but could he do it this time? His team tried everything. First came a bonification sprint in the “golden kilometre”, where riders like Tom Pidcock and Romain Grégoire grabbed a handful of seconds. Then it was on to the finale, with a bunch sprint still the most likely outcome.

Visma | Lease a Bike took responsibility at the front, looking to set up Laporte for win number two. But it was Wellens (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) who wanted to prevent a sprint and accelerated. The French rider in the green jersey reacted instantly and latched straight on. Marcin Budzinski (MBH Bank) also made the move.

Big engines at the front — and suddenly the peloton was under real pressure. Budzinski was delighted just to be there and refused to contribute, and that hesitation proved costly: the bunch closed them down again. The attempt fizzled out — and so it came down to a ‘normal’ sprint after all, where the 20-year-old Crabbé was clearly the quickest.