On his fourth day in the break at the Vuelta a España, and following three top-five placings on previous stages, Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) finally came up with his stage victory at this year's race.
The Belgian infiltrated a massive 40-man move on the 193km stage from Almuñécar to Loja and eventually raced into the select lead group of nine heading into the decisive final kilometres of the stage.
With 3.6km to go, he launched what turned out to be the winning move off the front, taking Soudal-QuickStep's flyweight climber Valentin Paret-Peintre with him as the pair left the rest of the breakaway survivors behind.
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After four-and-a-half hours of racing, it came down to a head-to-head sprint at the finish, with Paret-Peintre launching first from second wheel before the green jersey Van Aert duly dispatched with the Frenchman to deliver Visma-Lease a Bike's fourth stage win of the Vuelta.
More to come.
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