Oier Lazkano (Movistar) won stage 4 of the Vuelta a Burgos after he overpowered Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) on the uphill finale in Pradoluengo. The Spanish champion was part of a nine-man move that escaped early in the stage and fought out the victory on the category 3 climb to the line.
Primoz Roglic finished safely in the main peloton to retain his commanding overall lead ahead of Saturday’s finale at Lagunas de Neila, and his Jumbo-Visma team policed the day’s break to ensure dangerman Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) – 9th on the stage – wasn’t given too much leeway.
Lazkano showed his strength by closing down a late attack from Joan Bou (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and then surging to the front. Buitrago was the only rider who could follow Lazkano’s acceleration, but he was unable to summon up the speed to come around the strongman in the closing metres. Raul Garcia Pierna (Kern Pharma) took third place, three seconds behind Lazkano.
The Basque’s teammate Ivan Garcia Cortina won the sprint for 10th place, 58 seconds later, and Lazkano explained afterwards that his Movistar squad had prepared for every eventuality on Friday’s stage.
“Today we had the order from team to try to get in the break, but we also had Garcia in the bunch in case it came down to a sprint,” said Lazkano.
The 23-year-old has enjoyed a breakout season, capped by second place at Dwars door Vlaanderen, victory at Boucles de la Mayenne and, of course, the Spanish road title. Despite the presence of climbers of the calibre of Buitrago and Vine in the break of the day, Lazkano was compelled to bide his time for the 2km haul to the line due to the headwind on the long drag towards the final, category 3 climb.
“For the last 40 or 50km, we had a headwind, so we had to wait for the climb to attack, but we always had two or three minutes on the bunch,” said Lazkano, who is in line to start his second Vuelta a España next week. “It’s nice to win in Spain with the national champion’s jersey, and so close to home as well.”
Lazkano joined Vine, Buitrago, Matteo Fabbro (Bora-Hansgrohe), Jonathan Klever Caicedo (EF Education-EasyPost), Harold Martín López (Astana-Qazaqstan), Raúl García Pierna (Kern Pharma), Joan Bou (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Gianluca Brambilla (Q36.5) in the day’s early break, which formed with 150km still to race.
Vine, who impressed on stage 3 until a crash halted his progress, began the day 4:46 off Roglic’s overall lead, which meant that Jumbo-Visma were reluctant to offer the escapees too much latitude, though as the afternoon wore on, it became clear that they would have the chance to contest stage victory.
Brambilla was the first of the break to attack, launching a rasping acceleration with 1.3km to go that was pegged back by Buitrago. Garcia Pierna, already aggressive on Thursday, kicked beneath the flamme rouge before Bou launched his effort with 500m to go.
Lazkano sensed his moment and responded, bringing Buitrago with him. The Colombian might have been slightly favoured on a finale such as this, but Lazkano’s strength won the day.
Behind, Attila Valter brought the peloton to within a minute of the break on the final climb, while Roglic avoided a crash in the finale to finish safely in the peloton and retain his overall lead. He has a buffer of 33 seconds on Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) and 38 on Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) ahead of Saturday’s finale at Lagunas de Neila.
“It was hot, real summer, and also windy today. But have a strong team and the guys did a really good job so everything was under control,” Roglic said.
“Tomorrow will be the hard one with the finish uphill. Of course, it’s super nice, with a lot of people on the road, a lot of support. I’m definitely looking forward to tomorrow.”
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