The likelihood of Tadej Pogačar leading this year’s Vuelta a España from start to finish grew stronger on Tuesday, when he won stage four with a 50.3km solo attack, and extended his overall lead to 3 minutes and 21 seconds.
The world champion launched his stage-winning move on the second of four climbs, the category-one Collada de Beixalis, and immediately drew out a gap over the peloton.
He went on to claim the stage – the fifth of his career at the Vuelta, including stage one’s 9.4km time trial – by two minutes and 39 seconds in Andorra la Vella.
Latest Videos FromCycling Weekly
Jarno Widar (Lotto-Intermarché) placed second and Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) third. Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe), seventh across the line, finished on the same time as Widar and Gall, and is now second overall.
Reflecting on his victory, Pogačar said in his post-race interview that he “didn’t have to” attack from so far out.
“The pace was super-high already on the first climb, then on the second climb, we were basically going all out from the bottom,” the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider said.
“When Jay [Vine] let me pass on the wheel of Decathlon, then I knew, ‘Ok, I don’t want to be isolated against all the GC riders, because they will all play against me.’
“I tried with an attack on the climb and then just hoped I could survive until the finish when I saw that I could open the gap. I did it. It was pretty tough, but a beautiful day out there.”
The victory marked the seventh longest solo of Pogačar’s career, and his longest ever at a Grand Tour.
Now bolstered by a more than three-minute GC advantage, he said he can be “calm and confident” across the next 17 days of racing. “Any gap is more than enough, but it’s super-good,” Pogačar said. “It will be a little bit less stressful, for sure.”
The Slovenian also faces the possibility of holding the leader’s jersey from start to finish, a feat that hasn’t been achieved at a Grand Tour since Tony Rominger at the 1994 Vuelta a España.
“You never know, but now it’s a good gap,” Pogačar said of the challenge. “We give our best to control it every day. But if it’s uncontrollable, you cannot control, then we’ll have to fight. It’s going to be tough, but we have a really strong team here, so we are ready.”
How it happened
(Image credit: Getty Images)
After stage three’s abandonment due to a hailstorm, the peloton set out under clear skies in Andorra la Vella, the capital of Andorra, for the shortest road stage of this year’s race, but certainly not the easiest.
The day’s 104.8km route counted more than 3,000m of elevation gain over four categorised climbs – three category ones and a category three. The riders began climbing from the gun, immediately onto the 23.2km Port d’Envalira, where a breakaway group went in search of KOM points.
Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana) earned full honours at the summit. The peloton came back together on the descent and into the second climb.
There, Decathlon CMA CGM accelerated at the front, and looked to be setting up a move for their GC leader, Felix Gall.
Before the Austrian could strike, however, Pogačar charged ahead. Gall tried to follow, but within a few hundred metres, the gap grew to a handful of seconds. A few hundred metres more, it was 20 seconds, and the stage win looked destined to bear the Slovenian’s name.
Reflecting on that moment after the race, Netcompany-Ineos rider Oscar Onley said he wasn’t surprised to see Pogačar go solo. “We just let him do his thing,” Onley said, “and then we race between ourselves.”
The Scot was part of a GC cluster that formed behind Pogačar on the road. Alongside him were Widar, Gall, Roglič, Enric Mas (Movistar), Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a bike), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) – a group that swung between co-operating and trying to drop each other.
In the end, the only riders to lose time from the chasing group were Carapaz and Skjelmose, who finished another 18 and 38 seconds down respectively.
Pogačar was already on his way to the podium by the time they crossed the line. The world champion spent an hour and 20 minutes alone up the road, and his stage win never looked in doubt.
Tying up the victory, Pogačar also marked a full-circle moment for his career: his first Grand Tour stage win came in Andorra at the Vuelta, back on his race debut in 2019.
“Not for second did I think I would ride like this ever,” he said, thinking of his younger self. “I have such beautiful memories from the first time in Andorra. It’s one of my favourite moments of my career.”
Fast forward to today: he’s now a two-time world champion, five-time Tour de France champion, former Giro d’Italia winner, with a Vuelta title in waiting.
Explore More
