Spaniard Alejandro Valverde on Tuesday claimed victory on the fourth stage of Spain’s Vuelta a Espana as Slovakia’s Peter Sagan again had to settle for second place.
Sagan on Monday won his first Grand Tour stage for two years after finishing second five times at the Tour de France last month, but could not match Valverde’s pace up a short, steep climb to the finish of the 209.6km ride from Estepona to Vejer de la Frontera.
Spain’s Dani Moreno finished third.
Esteban Chaves of Colombia retains his overall lead by five seconds from Dutchman Tom Dumoulin, with Ireland’s Nicholas Roche a further 10 seconds back.
However, Valverde moves into fifth overall and leads Movistar teammate Nairo Quintana and Britain’s Chris Froome by eight and 12 seconds respectively in the battle among the favorites to win the three-week tour.
Froome is aiming to become just the third man in history to win the Tour de France and the Vuelta in the same year.
“Looking at the profile of the stage on the Internet, we saw that the final climb was very demanding and could be a good one for me,” Valverde said. “Clearly the stage victory is the most important thing. The time gained in the general classification is an added bonus, but there is still a long way to go. Today I won, but Nairo was very attentive to what was going on around me and we will continue to work together.”
Valverde timed his finish to perfection, jumping ahead of Sagan to claim not only the stage victory, but 10 bonus seconds to aid his chances of a second overall Vuelta win.
The race was to continue yesterday with a 167.3km ride from Rota to Alcala de Guadaira.
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