Tour Colombia 2.1: Higuita wins stage 4

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Sergio Higuita (EF Pro Cycling) claimed an emphatic stage win in the uphill finish in Santa Rosa on stage 4 of Tour Colombia 2.1.

Giro d'Italia champion Richard Carapaz (Team Ineos) put in a blistering attack over the crest of the category 3 ascent just 3km before the line, but was reeled in just before the finish by Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep).

As Carapaz was caught, Higuita rocketed out from behind Alaphilippe, sprinting to the stage win and race lead, while Tour de France winner Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) dashed in for second, two seconds ahead of Alaphilippe.

The high altitude of the stage certainly took its toll as attack after attack flew and failed in the final 10km after the day's breakaway was caught.

Even the Colombians suffered from lapses of concentration in the rarified air, with Dani Martinez (EF Pro Cycling) touching wheels and crashing in front of teammate and race leader Jonathan Caicedo.

Caicedo chased back on but the effort caught him out when riders surged in the final kilometre. Martinez chased back for fourth on the stage at three seconds while Caicedo came across in eighth with a group six seconds down.

EF Pro Cycling kept the top three spots in the overall classification, with Higuita taking the orange leader's jersey by 13 seconds over Martinez with Caicedo dropping to third at 16 seconds.

How it unfolded

After a team time trial and two stages for the sprinters, the tenor of the Tour Colombia 2.1 began to shift toward the overall contenders on stage 4, a 169km jaunt that once again started in Paipa and headed over high altitude passes to Santa Rosa de Viterbo with a finish just 2.9km after the crest of the category 3 Alto de Malterias at 2,732m.

The skies seemed to reflect the changing mood, as heavy clouds gathered over the opening difficulties: the first sprint was in El Sol after 36.2km, the first category 4 climb, the Alto Moral, after 47.2km – the same 2,945m climb tackled twice on stage 3 – again got double billing with a U-turn and a second pass over Alto Moral after 100km of racing.

As in stage 3, Simon Pellaud (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec) and Kristian Yustre (Team Illuminate) made the day's breakaway, this time along with Lauro Moro (Brazil), Omar Mendoza (Colombia Tierra de Atletas), Eduardo Corte (Canel's), Etienne Van Empel (Vini Zabu-KTM) and Sebastian Castaño (Orgullo Paisa).

Yustre took out the first sprint ahead of Mendoza and Moro, while Pellaud added to his KOM tally by taking the first mountain prime.

With 75km to race, the leaders’ gap hovered at 2:50, while EF Pro Cycling led the chase for their Ecuadorian race leader.

The sun emerged as Pellaud took maximum points at the second KOM to consolidate his lead in that category, and Yustre, meanwhile, claimed the second intermediate sprint as well ahead of Moro and Van Empel. Disaster almost struck for Pellaud, when a mechanical bumped him out of the lead group, but the determined Swiss rider was able to make it back to the breakaway at 90km. The seven leaders held a 2:30 gap with 38km remaining.

Deceuninck-QuickStep and Movistar came forward to help with the chase at this point, along with riders from several of the South American teams. The concerted chase started digging into the leaders’ advantage, and with 25km remaining the gap dipped below two minutes at 1:55. 

Just 5km later, the gap was down to one minute as Deceuninck-QuickStep poured on the power on the front of the peloton. The seconds continued to fall from the leaders’ advantage under QuickStep’s pace, dropping to 45 seconds a with 18km remaining. At 16km, QuickStep had chewed another 20 seconds off the gap, and the day out front for the escapees was about to end.

Van Empel sensed the imminent catch and attacked the group, soon joined by Moro, but it only prolonged the agony for the Dutchman and Bazilian as the bunch continued to bear down on the leaders. Van Empel then faded, and only Moro was left to fight off the peloton, but he, too, was quickly back in the fold with 12km left to race.

A crash disrupted the peloton with 8km to go, just before the final climb, with a number of riders being blocked by the melee. Team Ineos, however, were amassed at the front out of trouble as the final climb kicked in.

Ineos set a brisk pace on the climb and soon it was Richard Carapaz, Egan Bernal, Julian Alaphilippe, Dani Martinez, Caicedo and a few others, but Martinez touched wheels and crashed in front of Caicedo, forcing the Ecuadoran to make a big effort to regain the front group.

The pace slowed with 3km to go and Alaphilippe took matters into his hands with a surge but was quickly slapped by the high altitude.

Carapaz played off an attack from a rider from Colombia Tierra de Atletas - GW Bicicletas with a solo attack, but Alaphilippe reeled him in before the line and Higuita sprinted out of the group to snatch the stage win.

Stage Results

Overall Standings