Vuelta a San Juan: Gaviria wins stage 4 in Villa San Agustin

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Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) won his second Vuelta a San Juan stage in four days on Wednesday, beating Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) with a bike throw across the line at the end of stage 4 in Villa San Agustín.

Race leader Julian Alaphilippe (Decenuninck-QuickStep) led the peloton onto the finishing straight in the tiny village 250km from San Juan, dropping Max Richeze and sprinter Alvaro Hodeg in the front position, but it was the superior speed from UAE's Simone Consonni and Gaviria that won the day. Sagan once again freelanced his way through the traffic to challenge Gaviria at the line for second, with Hodeg grabbing third.

The peloton caught the remnants of the day's breakaway with just 2.5km remaining after Israel Cycling Academy and Lotto Soudal came forward to finish off the chase. QuickStep and Bora-Hansgrohe then came forward as the peloton negotiated three tight right-hand turns in the finale. Alaphilippe took over the front with just under 1km to go, leading the bunch through the final turn and into the straightaway.

Richeze may have made his final move to early, however, fading slightly before dropping off Hodeg as Consonni and Gaviria flew past. Sagan briefly got past Gaviria in the closing metres, but a final surge from the Colombian sealed the win.

How it unfolded

Stage 4 at the Vuelta a San Juan saw the peloton tackle 185.8km from San José de Jáchal Valle Fértil to Villa San Agustín. The stage featured two sprints at 36km into the day and again near the end of the race with just under 40km remaining. The three KOMs were all on the same climb in the middle of the stage, coming in rapid succession at 90km, 96km and 104.5km.

With the final KOM coming more than 80km from the finish, however, and the route heading mostly downhill from there, the sprinters and their teams were no doubt looking for another opportunity. The weather also cooperated on the fourth day of the race, with temperatures dropping to a more-bearable 32C for most of the day.

The early going saw a breakaway of six riders get off the front. The move was initiated by
Argentina local Daniel Zamora (Agrupacion Virgen De Fatima), who was in search of KOM points in the mountains classification. He was joined by countryman Facundo Cattapan (Municipalidad de Rawson Somos Todos), Royner Navarro (Peru), Cesar Paredes (Medellin), Ricardo Paredes (Chile) and Robert Mendez (Uruguay).

The gap quickly approached nine minutes, as Cattapan took maximum points at the first sprint and the three-second time bonus ahead of Zamora and Paredes. The leaders had about five minutes on the peloton as they approached the bottom of the day's climb, where the group started coming apart as Zamora upped the pace in search of the KOM jersey.

Zamora took the maximum three points on the first KOM after outsprinting Paredes and Cattapan. Zamora also led over the second climb, a category 1 prize, giving him 10 more points. Paredes pushed him all way but had to settle for second. Zamora also took the final KOM of the day, giving him a solid lead in the mountains classification going into stage 5.

Just three riders from the break survived the climb, as Zamora, Paredes and Navarro continued on. With the climbing out of the way, multiple WorldTour teams threw riders into the chase to guarantee their fast men got a chance to sprint for the stage win.

On the straight, wide-open roads to Villa San Agustín, the peloton had an easy time controlling the trio of breakaway riders, who saw their gap come down quickly to just over a minute. The peloton feathered the gap form there, letting the breakaway dangle in sight just up the road.

The leaders held on to deny any bonus seconds to riders in the bunch when Navarro beat Paredes and Zamora at the final intermediate sprint with 39.6km to go. The peloton sensed their prey up the road and eased off just a bit to let the trio extend their lead and get more TV time for their squads.

Navarro suffered a puncture and eventually faded back into the bunch, leaving Zamora and Paredes to go on alone. Flooding a couple centimetres deep across the road with 10km remaining caused a bit of tension in the bunch, but, unlike the 2018 stage here when riders crashed, everyone made it through unscathed.

There was a bit of confusion in the chase as the leaders had 13 seconds with less than 4km to go, and Israel Cycling Academy came forward to take control of the chase. Lotto Soudal moved up as well, and the catch was finally made with 2.5km to go.

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