Tour Of The Basque Country 2014 - Stage 4

The fourth stage of the Tour Of The Basque Country took place yesterday with a 151 kilometre stage from Victoria-Gasteiz to Eibar. It was a return to serious climbing for the peloton after the sprint finish yesterday, and promised to herald at least some minor changes on general classification. After their performance on stage one Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde were favourites for the stage.

Simon Gerrans of Orica-GreenEDGE was a non-starter this morning, whilst Luis Leon Sanchez of Caja Rural moved clear with a group of riders. Jean-Marc Marino (Cannondale) and Alexsandr Dyachenko (Astana) were the other riders with him, and they were soon joined by Ben King and Nelson Oliveira. They looked like they were going clear, but the peloton were in a ruthless mood, and their lead quickly dropped.

More attacks flew clear from the peloton, and eventually a five man breakaway was established. It contained Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida), Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano), Ben Gastauer (AG2R La Mondiale), Romain Sicard (Europcar) and Jon Izaguirre (Movistar). This breakaway was much more successful, but Tinkoff-Saxo weren't letting it have too much time.

Rory Sutherland was the man setting the pace, showing his Tour de France credentials, and the leaders were brought back with the final climb still to come. Pieter Weening and Simon Yates, both of Orica-GreenEDGE, attempted a brief assault, but Tony Martin helped bring it back for his team leader Michal Kwiatkowski. 

Alberto Contador made his first move with five kilometres to go, with only Valverde following, but the pair didn't press on and the rest of the group caught up. Among them were Cadel Evans, Damiano Cunego, Samuel Sanchez and Wout Poels. Contador made another couple of moves, before Simon Spilak's attack took a group of four clear including Poels.

Wout Poels then attacked alone, and the Omega Pharma-Quickstep man crested the final climb alone before descending to the finish. He finished just infront of the chasing group, arms aloft, as stage winner. Valverde and Samuel Sanchez were close behind, with Contador also finishing safely. Valverde gained a couple of seconds on Contador, meaning El Pistolero's advantage going into the final two stages is twelve seconds.