Volta a Catalunya: De Gendt wins solo on summit finish to Port Ainé

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Thomas de Gendt (Lotto Soudal) brought back memories of his ride on the Stelvio in the Giro d’Italia in 2012 with another mountain top stage win on stage 4 of the Volta a Catalunya. The Belgian was in the early break and had the better of his companions on the queen stage to finish alone on the Port Ainé.

The Lotto Soudal rider, who enjoyed rather unpredictable form in recent years, finished 1:08 ahead of Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Richie Porte (BMC Racing). Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) finished fourth.

In the overall standings, Quintana moved into the race lead after dropping his rivals on the final climb. Overnight race leader Daniel Martin (Etixx-Quickstep) was unable to hang onto the relentless attacks in the closing stages and dropped down to fourth in GC.

The 2015 Tour de France winner Chris Froome (Team Sky) was unable to respond to Quintana and Contador but he was able to set his own pace on the 18.5km climb to finish in eighth position on the stage.

After four stages, Quintana leads Contador by 8 seconds with Porte in third at 17 seconds.

De Gendt, who started the day almost 20 minutes down in the general classification, only had the stage win on his mind as he battled up the long final ascent. He battled through several difficult moments, and even when a fellow breakaway companion, Pieter Weening (Roompot) opened up a minute’s lead the Belgian remained unflappable. He narrowed the gap to Weening with the help of Imanol Erviti Ollo (Movistar) before dispatching with both riders within the final two kilometres.

Although the break had seven minutes on the peloton at the foot of the climb, pace duties from BMC Racing, Etixx-QuickStep and Tinkoff reduced the gap dramatically. De Gendt, who rode a similar long-range tactic to win atop the Stelvio in 2012, held on to take his first win since claiming a stage in the Volta a Catalunya back in 2013.

How it unfolded

After yesterday’s brittle but effective skirmishes the GC contenders were out in force for the most important stage of the race. Their showdown on the final climb was always going to take centre stage in the race but the back-drop, with several climbs en route, was always going to be set on a canvas first guided by the day's early break.

Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing), Imanol Erviti (Movistar), Ruben Plaza (Orica GreenEdge), De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Lauren ten Dam (Giant Alpecin), Kristijan Durasek (Lampre – Merida), Weening (Roompot), Boris Dron (Wanty), Alexey Tsatevich (Katusha), and Ben Swift (Team Sky) duly obliged with the group establishing a lead of 10:30 after 80km of racing.

It proved to be both the pinnacle of their collaboration and the advantage, with De Gendt’s old team Etixx leading the chase on behalf of their race leader, Dan Martin.

When the race reached the final 50 kilometres of the stage a new order had been established with Everti and de Gendt leading a fragmented break on the penultimate climb, and the peloton seven minutes in arrears.

The descent towards the long, and narrow snow-capped finale proved critical for the leaders’ chances. They – according the sparse time checks – held their gap at six minutes. Weening had made contact with Everti and de Gendt before the crest of the penultimate climb with 36km to go.

Back in the peloton Team Sky explored their options with an attack from Wout Poels. He linked up with Swift on the way to the start of the final climb, but with the Dutchman less than 40 seconds down on GC coming into the stage his chances of success were always going to be limited. His efforts did, however, shake Etixx and it forced Contador to help with the chase as he looked to wrestle the lead from Martin’s shoulders.

Everti briefly stole a march on his two companions but Weening, who like De Gendt has Giro form from the past, swept by, and churning along on the big ring he put a minute into a re-grouped chase of Everti and De Gendt.

As the climb wound on Martin quickly became isolated, with only a determined Carlos Verona for company.

When Poels was eventually caught with 5km to go his teammate Mikel Nieve took it as his cue to accelerate and brief forays from Robert Gesink and Astana’s young Miguel Lopez soon followed.

The canvas was almost finished but Contador’s brush strokes would soon follow. It was Van Garderen who moved first, the American diesel pushing clear with a measured move as Contador eyed a response from his other rivals.

Martin held the first Contador move but only Richie Porte and Quintana were soon left as the trio caught van Garderen.

Up ahead, the light had dimmed, but De Gendt had enough to sweep past a tiring Weening just as Contador and Quintana detached themselves from the BMC duo.

The race lead was on Contador’s shoulder for the briefest of moments as Quintana surged clear to take second and a valuable chunck of time and the race lead.

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