Ethan Vernon (NSN Cycling Team) came out on top on a shortened stage 4 of the Volta a Catalunya, outfoxing and outmuscling double stage winner Dorian Godon (Ineos Grenadiers) in a bunch sprint in Camprodón.
The stage had been set to signal the start of the mountains but high winds at the planned summit finish of Vallter 2000 forced the finish line to be moved into the valley, meaning another opportunity for the sprinters.
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Godon, who’d locked onto the wheel, was unable to squeeze through at that point and unable to get around in the relatively short home straight that remained after it.
Godon is still the overall leader, but Pidcock’s advances saw him jump above Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and into second place on GC, 13 seconds down. Evenepoel looked in good shape despite his heavy crash in the previous day’s finale, even taking three bonus seconds of his own by beating Pidcock to the first intermediate sprint.
“It hadn’t gone to plan for us the first three days, then we were gifted another opportunity last night. The boys really committed, and this means an extra lot for everyone because it wasn’t meant to be today,” Vernon said.
“We wanted to control it for a sprint. In the end quite a small breakaway went and that played into my favour as it meant the day was a bit slower than normal. We didn’t have to chase the break as hard. It played into the hands of the fast men at the end and we made the most of it.”
How it unfolded
The peloton set out for the shortened stage 4 of the Volta a Catalunya having to improvise race strategies for the new 151km route that featured more than 2,000 metres of elevation gain but no major climbs in the finale, meaning a sprint finish was the likeliest outcome.
The only two…
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