Ruta del Sol: Coquard wins stage 4

Bryan Coquard (Direct Energie) sprinted to victory in Sevilla on stage 4 of the Ruta del Sol, collecting his second victory of the season.

The Frenchman, who picked up his first victory at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana earlier this month, got the better of Daniel Hoelgaard (FDJ) on the flat finish in the city centre, with Hugo Hofstetter (Cofidis), finishing third.

A technical finale and a chicane in the final 300 metres complicated the lead-outs, and positioning was all-important going round the final bend. Just after coming through it, Hoelgaard was in full flow, but Coquard didn’t panic and there was enough space for him to get on terms and come through for a narrow victory.

In what was the first ‘day off’ from a general classification perspective, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) finished safely in the bunch to hold onto his overall lead.

The Spaniard leads the race by a second from compatriot Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) ahead of Sunday’s final stage, which features hills but is nevertheless set to produce a bunch finish. That said, rain is predicted in the region tomorrow, and Valverde won’t be celebrating a moment too soon.

"Nothing is settled," he said. "With the rain forecast tomorrow, the potential mishaps require you to be fully on your guard."

How it unfolded

After two big mountain stages and an individual time trial, the sprinters who had ventured to Andalucia finally got what they were waiting for.

There were still some hills on the menu – three of them in fact – but they all came before the half-way mark on the 180km leg from La Campana to Sevilla. The rest was either downhill or flat, and the sprint teams were never going to allow things to slip from their control.

A breakaway went after around 27km, and it contained: Martijn Keizer (Lotto-Jumbo), Diego Rubio (Caja Rural), Jerome Cousin (Cofidis), Lukasz Owsian (CCC), Martijn Budding (Roompot) and Jens Wallays (Sport Vlaanderen).

The group built a lead of two and a half minutes as Budding collected the points on the first two climbs and Cousin the third – none of which were higher than second-category ascents – while Keizer won the intermediate sprint just after the final climb.

But they weren’t allowed much leeway from the sprint teams, which gradually reduced the gap in the second half of the race, bringing it below a minute with 30km to race. That said, there were glimmers of hope for the break heading into the final several kilometres, still with a gap of close to half a minute.

With 5km to go, however, they stopped collaborating, with Keizer, Rubio, and Cousin rolling the dice. That spelt their end, however, and Cousin was the last to be caught with 3.2km remaining.

At that point it was over to the sprint trains, with Direct Energie, Lotto Soudal and Cofidis all gathering at the front. A Roompot rider took a flyer inside the final two kilometres but took a wrong turn and took himself out of the picture.

There were several kinks and turns in the final kilometre, the last of which came some 280 metres from the line. Hoelgaard came through in pole position, but there was enough distance for Coquard to come through and show his superiority. 

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