Bouhanni wins snow-shortened stage 4 of Volta a Catalunya

Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) claimed the fourth stage of the Volta a Catalunya on Thursday, surviving a late second-category climb to sprint to victory in Igualada.

After 134km of racing – the stage was shortened from 194km due to snow on the route – FDJ led the peloton into the finale for Davide Cimolai. Bouhanni, however, surged past the Italian with 150 metres to go to take a convincing win. Cimolai finished second, with Orica-Scott's Daryl Impey taking third.

It was a welcome result for Bouhanni after Cimolai bested him on the opening day of the race.

"I'm super happy with what the Cofidis team has done for me today and by helping me to win this race," said Bouhanni. "It was my fault on stage 1, I went too far out. I wasn't happy to lose by two centimetres and so I really wanted to win today. I did what I needed to do."

There was a brief skirmish in the GC battle going over the final climb, with Sky's Chris Froome and Movistar's Alejandro Valverde making it into a four-man escape on the descent, but an alert peloton snuffed the move out.

BMC's Tejay van Garderen finished with the pack to retain his overall race lead ahead of Friday's mountainous fifth stage.

How it unfolded

Stage 4 was initially planned to set out from Llívia in the Pyrenees, but the start was moved 60 kilometres along the route to the town of Montferrer due to snow in the mountains. The two categorized climbs and an uncategorized ascent between them remained on the menu, however, meaning that the sprinters had their work cut out for them in the pursuit of a bunch kick finish.

It took some time for the day's main breakaway to form, with five riders finally getting clear nearly an hour into the stage. Diego Rubio (Caja Rural), José Gonçalves (Katusha-Alpecin), Matteo Bono (UAE Team Emirates), Martijn Keizer (LottoNl-Jumbo) and Juan Osorio (Manzana Postobon) comprised the move, which was allowed to build an advantage of around three minutes before the peloton tightened the leash. BMC and Lotto Soudal set the tempo in the bunch, cutting the gap down to around a minute and then letting it hover there for a while as the kilometres ticked down.

A crash with a little over 30 kilometres left to race took down several riders, including Katusha-Alpecin's Ilnur Zakarin. The Russian was back up and racing before long, and eventually made his way back into the pack, but the team has since announced that he won't start Friday's stage 5 due to a hip bruise.

The bunch swept up the escapees for good heading onto the final climb of the day. Astana's Dario Cataldo and Jakob Fuglsang tried their luck midway up the ascent but were quickly swept up. AG2R's Romain Bardet and Quick-Step's Dan Martin were the next to put in a serious dig, but all the big guns were live to the danger, with Trek's Alberto Contador and Sky's Geraint Thomas bridging and then others joining. Things were more or less together again – albeit lined out – by the summit some 14 kilometres from the finish.

As the road angled downward, Marc Soler (Movistar) – sitting sixth overall and leading the young riders classification – and David Gaudu (FDJ) initiated a move on the descent. Valverde and Froome were quick to respond and join the pair, making for a quartet up front. For a few moments, it looked to be a strong move, but their advantage was never more than a dozen seconds. A hard-charging peloton swept them back up five kilometres later as the speedsters looked to fight for the stage win on the finishing straight.

FDJ hit the front with five kilometres to go to set Ciomlai up for the impending sprint. With Lotto Soudal's André Greipel undone by the final climb, all eyes were on Cimolai and Bouhanni for the fast finish. Cimolai was in front with 200 metres to go when his final lead out man peeled off, but it was Bouhanni who ultimately powered across the line first to snag the win.

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