Visma | Lease a Bike recharges battery for flying weekend with Tulett

Ben Tulett is still very much in contention for a podium place in the GC after stage 4 of the Tour of the Basque Country. The 24-year-old Brit dropped one position on Thursday, but Visma | Lease a Bike are recharging the battery ahead of a flying final weekend.

Tulett has been on the mark all week and although he went down quite hard on Wednesday in the third stage, he was able to stay with the best in the finale a day later. Only race leader Paul Seixas and Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) opened up a gap on the final descent.

Seixas thereby strengthened his leader's jersey and home rider Izagirre climbed from sixth to fourth in the general classification. The differences are, however, small, because behind the untouchable Seixas, second through to seventh place are all within 30 seconds of each other.

At Visma | Lease a Bike they were above all pleased that Tulett could maintain his position in the general classification after the crash on Wednesday. 'It was another tough stage, as every day has been so far,' the climber said via the team's official channels.

'It was fast from start to finish. I wasn’t sure how my body would respond after yesterday’s crash, but fortunately I didn’t feel too bad,' said the 24-year old Brit. 'I’m happy that I could compete with my classification rivals on the climbs.'

'There are still two challenging stages to come, and a lot can still happen. I’m looking forward to it,' said Tulett, referring to the fifth stage on Friday around Eibar, which contains a great deal of climbing. On Saturday the final stage goes from Goizper-Antzuola to Bergara, with a steep climb in the finale.

Tulett still needs to overtake three men in the general classification if he wants to make the final podium on Saturday. Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe have the first two chasers of Seixas in their ranks with Primož Roglič and Florian Lipowitz.

Alongside Tulett and Izagirre, Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost) are also aiming to gain a few positions.