Volta a Catalunya: Almeida conquers stage 4 uphill sprint at Boí Taüll

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João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) beat Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) and Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe) in a mountaintop sprint finish to win stage 4 of the Volta a Catalunya above the snowline at Boí Taüll in the heart of the Pyrenees.

The trio got away in the final two kilometres, distanced Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) and race leader Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën) and then went elbow to elbow in the sweeping final corners and in the dirt road finishing sprint.

O’Connor cracked and finished 23 seconds behind and so lost the race lead, slipping to sixth at 16 seconds.

Almeida, Quintana and Higuita took the 10, six and four-second time bonuses, putting Almeida and Quintana on the same time. However the Colombian took the race leader’s white and green jersey thanks to better stage placings. Higuita is third overall at six seconds, with Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) fourth at 17 seconds.

Almeida and UAE Team Emirates rode an impressive race, sending several riders on the attack to force their rivals to react. Almeida started the stage six seconds down on his young teammate Ayuso but clearly had the freedom to ride his own race.

Almeida lost time in the echelons during the early stage of Paris-Nice but fought back to finish eighth overall and win the best young rider’s white jersey. He will lead UAE Team Emirates at the Giro d’Italia after joining the team for 2022.

“I’ve been working hard for so long but haven’t been so lucky. I even crashed early in the stage today but it wasn’t a problem and I’m super happy to win and felt so good today,” he said post-stage.

“I made a controlled effort on the climb and with Ben O’Connor in the race lead,I could ride on the wheels. I did my pace and then sprinted for victory.”

Almeida will now fight with Quintana for every second during the three finals stages of the Volta a Catalunya, with the time bonus sprints and the final stage around Barcelona’s Montjuic circuit likely to be decisive.

“We’ve got the jersey and so we’ll try to race as we want to,” Quintana said.“We’ve been working well as a team, I feel good, I’m on form and so we’re optimistic for the final stages.”

How it unfolded

The Queen stage of the Volta a Catalunya climbed high across the Pyrenees between La Seu d'Urgell and Boí Taüll, with the haul up to the 2,015-metre-high finish lasting 13 kilometres and climbing at six per cent but on wide, fast roads.

The illness circulating in the peloton forced Pieter Serry (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) and Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco) out of the race, the two team leaders joining Tom Dumoulin, Michał Kwiatkowski, Fausto Masnada, stage 1 winner Michael Matthews and Richie Porte on the sick list.

The Col de Boixols, the first ascent of the day, acted as an ideal springboard for the early, strategic attack and Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), Bruno Armirail (Groupama-FDJ), Juan Pedro López (Trek-Segafredo) and Luke Plapp (Ineos Grenadiers) jumped away.

Mark Donovan (Team DSM) and Mikel Bizkarra (Euskaltel-Euskadi) managed to join them and over the top of the Col de Boixols, they lead by 2:30. Movistar made the initial chase in pursuit of former teammate Soler before AG2R Citroën soon took control to defend O’Connor’s lead.

The breakaway’s lead stabilised at two minutes over the Port de la Creu de Perves after 110km but the peloton refused to let them get away. A lack of cohesion was also a problem, and their gap was only 1:10 at the intermediate sprint in El Pont de Suert after 135km.

Armirail and Donovan jumped away to push on together as the peloton swept up the rest, ending any risk of Soler being called back to help his teammates and so protesting publicly about his teammates as he famously did while at Movistar. He was awarded the most aggressive rider prize as a consolation. Armirail and Donovan lead through the second intermediate sprint after 147km, with O'Connor cleverly jumping away from the pack to pick-up an extra second.

The road to Boí Taüll began to climb well before the 13km official distance, with just 30 riders left in the front group.

Donovan was soon swept up as Arkea-Samsic rode to set up Quintana with 10km to go. The Colombian was expected to attack but instead he stayed on the wheels, even when O’Connor accelerated to test the form of his rivals. The Australian was joined by Carapaz and others but they soon eased-up.

George Bennett continued the UAE Team Emirates plan and accelerated away alone in pursuit of Armirail. That spat Alejandro Valverde out of the back and Ineos generously took up the chase because Bennett was only one place down on Carapaz and only 19 seconds behind O’Connor.

The Kiwi and the Frenchman were eventually caught with 3.5km to go under the impetus of Jonathan Castroviejo, his speed dumping other riders out of the back as the riders reached the snow level and the altitude also became a factor.

Carapaz was the first to attack but was soon joined by Higuita and then Almeida and Quintana. They distanced the rest and especially O’Connor and began to race for the stage victory.

Carapaz cracked in the final kilometre when Quintana attacked but Almeida was his match, fought to keep the inside line and then had just enough extra power to edge ahead and win the stage.