Ben King wins stage 4 of La Vuelta
2018 Vuelta a Espana
Stage 4
Dimension Data’s King danced clear of Astana’s Stalnov in the closing moments to take a maiden Grand Tour stage win as the Frenchman Pierre Rolland (EF Education First-Drapac) closed in on the leading duo at the end the 161.4km stage from Malaga.
Spaniard Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis) took fourth place on another successful day in his pursuit of polka dot points. The remnants of the break, meanwhile, arrived in dribs and drabs before Britain’s Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) was the first of the general classification favourites to cross the line some two minutes and 48 seconds in arrears.
Hot on the heels of Yates was the German Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) as the two riders edged ahead of the veteran Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) in the standings.
Valverde nevertheless cut his deficit to Kwiatkowski by two seconds after a late surge, the Spaniard coming home 3’13” down on the victor King and just ahead a group of favourites that included Team Sky’s Kwiatkowski, the Colombians Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First), and the Dutchman Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb).
The likes of Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Ion Izagirre (Bahrain Merida), George Bennett(LottoNL-Jumbo), Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates) and Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) were all present and correct in this elite chasing group – although it was another day of large losses for Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida), Ilnir Zakarin (Katusha Alpecin) and Richie Porte (BMC), the latter conceding in excess of 20 minutes.
After the first summit finish of the race, Kwiatkowski is now seven seconds clear of Buchmann and 10 seconds ahead of Yates. Valverde drops to fourth at 12 seconds while Kelderman’s deficit stays at 25 seconds despite the Dutchman dropping to fifth.
For the third day running, a break formed pretty much from the outset – and for the third day running, the familiar faces of Mate and Rolland were among the plucky escapees.
The two rivals for the polka dot jersey were joined this time by King, Stalnov, Jelle Wallays (Lotto-Soudal), Lars Boom (LottoNL-Jumbo), Oscar Cabedo (Burgos-BH) and Aritz Bagues (Euskadi-Murias), with a ninth rider, Ben Gastauer of Ag2R-La Mondiale, bridging over shortly after.
Under relentless sunshine in southern Spain, the break established a four-minute gap on the coastal road ahead of the first of two first-category climbs. Mate cemented his lead in the KOM standings by zipping over the summit of the Alto de la Cabra (15.7km at 5.9%) in pole position ahead of Gastauer and Rolland.
Behind, it was the Sky train of the red jersey Kwiatkowski who controlled the tempo in the peloton as the gap moved north of nine minutes while the race headed further inland towards Granada ahead of the final climb.
Trailing the Polish race leader by 4’33” going into the stage, King zipped clear to win the intermediate sprint with, perhaps, dreams of the red jersey on his mind. The American was joined by Wallays and Stalnov in a leading trio that started the Puerto de Alfacar (12.4km at 5.4%) with a gap of 40 seconds over the chasers and eight minutes over the peloton.
The Belgian Wallays cracked as soon as the road headed uphill while Rolland rode off in pursuit of the two leaders – at one point reducing the gap to 15 seconds before fading on the second half of the climb.
Back on the front of the peloton it was the LottoNL-Jumbo team of New Zealander Bennett and Dutchman Steven Kruijswijk who set a blistering tempo to whittle down the pack of favourites and slash the advantage of the two leaders to under four minutes – ending any red aspirations for King.
But when the impressive American Sepp Kuss peeled off the front, it wasn’t team-mates Bennett or Kruijswijk who took up the baton but the Briton Yates.
Channelling the form that saw him ride to three stage wins and a long stint in pink during the Giro d’Italia, Yates rode clear with a few kilometres remaining – although his gap was never that big, allowing Buchmann to bridge over in the final kilometre.
By this point, King had already taken his breakthrough win – the 29-year-old surging clear of Stalnov after some interesting mind games between the pair just as the plucky Rolland managed to fight back with 200 metres remaining.
King took his fourth – and by far biggest – pro win by two seconds ahead of his Kazakh rival while Rolland – seeking the elusive win that would complete his Grand Tour grand slam – came home 13 seconds in arrears.
It was another minute before Mate crossed the line for fourth place and some extra KOM points that saw him retain the polka dot jersey with a 16-point gap over Rolland.
“It’s a dream come true,” said King, who was full of praise for his Dimension Data team and their Qhubeka charity. “I didn’t start believing it until the last kilometre. I’m happy for the way it worked out and for the confidence the team put in me.
“We’ve been building all season for this. The atmosphere continues to improve on the team and the spirits are high and we’re looking forward to the rest of this month. I set winning a Grand Tour stage as a goal for myself at the beginning of the year. I had to keep on believing that I had that potential. So, it’s really affirming because I’ve worked so hard for this and me and my wife have sacrificed so much to make this happen.”
Tomorrow’s stage 5 takes the riders 188.7km from Granada to Roquetas de Mar. Rolling roads and two categorised climbs are on the menu as the riders skirt the mountainous Sierra Nevada national park and head back to the south coast for a flat finish after a fast and technical 16km descent on Wednesday.
