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Lennart Van Eetvelt celebrates too early and loses Vuelta stage to Roglič

Lennart Van Eetvelt celebrates too early and loses Vuelta stage to Roglič

Tuesday’s fourth day of the 79th Vuelta a Espana was the first opportunity for the GC favourites to scrap in a road stage, with the a summit finish atop Pico Villuercas in the Southern part of the country. It was the setting for another premature celebration travesty, leaving Lennert Van Eetvelt to pound his handlebars in frustration after the line when he realized he was pipped by Primož Roglič. With his 20th Grand Tour stage win, Roglič took over the red jersey from Wout van Aert. João Almeida is Roglič’s closest competitor, +0:08. Michael Woods was 46th.

The Course

Cat. 2 Puerto de Cabezabellosa and Cat. 1 Alto de Piornal were set in the first half of the 170-km route. At 14.6 km and 6.1 percent, Pico Villuercas is the highest peak in the Sierra de Villuercas mountains. The final 5 km were very steep and narrow. It was a hot day.

Tuesday’s breakaway was a quintet. Belgain Sylvain Moniquet scored five KOM points on Cabezabellosa and 10 on Piornal, taking the classification from Luis Ángel Maté, who nicked the blue polka dot jersey from Stefan Küng on Monday. With 115 km to go, the five men had 3:30 over the Red Bull-pulled peloton. Moniquet found breakmate Bruno Amirail filching the points on Cat. Puerto de Miravete. The fugitive broke snapped in uneven pieces on the way to Pico Villuercas.

Only Amirail and Pablo Castrillo were left up front with 31 km remaining.

Castrillo cools off breakmate Amirail on their way to the final climb.

Early in the climb, van Aert slipped off the back of the peloton. The fugitive duo still had a minute on the field with 9 km remaining. Trek-Lidl and then UAE-Emirates mobbed the front. The escapees came to heel before the steepest slopes. Pavel Sivakov accelerated to soften up the likely lads. Roglič took over. Surprisingly, Adam Yates was dropped before Felix Gall attacked.

Roglič, Sivakov, Carlos Rodriguez, Sepp Kuss, Enric Mas, Van Eetvelt and Almeida chased the Austrian. Roglič, Mas and Van Eetvelt caught and dispatched Gall, who chased with Almeida and Israel-Premier Tech’s American Matthew Riccitello. These group merged just before the red kite. Kuss was 32 seconds behind.

Riccitello attacked just before Mikel Landa made it over. Gall then made a thrust, drawing the three-time champion. It re-formed, allowing…

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