Vuelta a Burgos: Juan Sebastian Molano wins stage 4

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Juan Sebastian Molano (UAE Team Emirates) won his second bunch sprint of the Vuelta a Burgos ahead of Jon Aberasturi (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) in a photo finish.

The Colombian banged his handlebars upon crossing the finish line, although whether the gesture was one of celebration or frustration was unclear. It took a photo finish to confirm that he had edged out Aberasturi at the line.

Romain Bardet (Team DSM) finished safely in the peloton to hold the overall lead, but one of his main rivals on GC, Domenico Pozzovivo (Qhubeka NextHash), went down in a crash in the final 10km, meaning he drops out of GC contention from being third overall.

It was a messy bunch sprint that no single team managed to control. But UAE Team Emirates’ Matteo Trentin did manage to help provide a lead out for Molano, just as he had done a couple of days ago.

For a moment it looked as though it would be Aberasturi who would most benefit from Trentin’s lead out rather than Molano when he emerged from the Italian's wheel to start his sprint. But Molano managed to latch onto his wheel, and just about passed him in time to take the victory.

Vincenzo Albanese (EOLO-Kometa) also looked for a moment like he would take the win when he swung over to the left-hand side of the road to start his sprint, but was narrowly edged by both Molano and Aberasturi into third.

Trentin continued sprinting after his lead out so that he finished fourth, and there was little to choose between all of the top four finishers, who were spread all across the road at the finish line. 

How it unfolded

The penultimate stage of the five-day Vuelta a Burgos took place under blue skies and in warm weather. 

Hugh Carthy (EF Education-Nippo) was the most striking name in the day’s break. Having lost lots of time yesterday, the British rider began the day over eight minutes down on GC, meaning he had a licence to go on the attack without alerting the GC teams.

This was not a stage for him to use his climbing prowess, however, as not a single categorised climb featured on the parcours from Roa to Arnada de Duero.

Joining him in the break were Mario Aparicio and Diego Rubio (Burgos-BH), Diego Pablo Sevilla and Marton Dina (EOLO-Kometa) and Mikel Bizkarra (Euskaltel-Euskadi).

Despite none of these riders posing a threat on GC, the break wasn’t allowed a gap of much more than a couple of minutes, as the likes of UAE Team Emirates and Bora-Hansgrohe controlled the peloton with a sprint finish in mind.

With the gap down to under 1:30, Aparacio attacked from the breakaway 43km from the finish, only to be brought back a few minutes later.

Back in the peloton, Ineos Grenadiers increased the pace as they entered the final 40km, reaching speeds of over 70km per hour on the flat plains. 

Amid this extra intensity, there was a large crash in the middle of the bunch, with lots of riders held up. Groups were strewn all across the road, but gradually all came back together as none showed any desire to press on in the aftermath of the crash.

That allowed the break’s advantage to increase to back over two minutes, although by this point it was splintering with Carthy, Dina and Rubio going clear from the rest about 30km from the finish. 

While the distanced escapees dropped back into the peloton, the leading trio gave themselves a chance of surviving, and still had a gap of almost two minutes as they entered the final 20km. Their task was made very difficult by the long, exposed roads that led to the finish, and work by teams like AG2R Citroën, Bora-Hansgrohe and Team DSM soon saw the gap come down to within a minute.

Rubio went for glory by dropping the other two 9km from the finish, but by now the catch was inevitable, and was made a couple of kilometres later. 

Another crash occurred in the peloton shortly before the catch was made, this time towards the front, and involved Pozzovivo. The crash occurred too late in the stage for him to make it back to the peloton, meaning the drops out of GC contention. That means Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Victorious) is now the only rider within one minute of Romain Bardet on GC, who will attempt to defend the leader’s purple jersey on tomorrow’s mountainous final stage.