Tadej Pogacar produced another peerless performance as he soloed to victory from 50km from the finish on the mountainous fourth stage of the Vuelta a Espana.
The Slovenian, who is riding the Vuelta for only the second time in his career and for the first time in seven years, was the overwhelming pre-race favourite and had been widely expected to put the competition to bed in the opening week.
Stage three’s cancellation due to severe hailstorms prevented him from making a late raid on the final climb to Font Romeu and delivering that statement of intent.
But he made up for lost time on stage four, attacking on the second of three category-one climbs, the Collada de Beixalis. None of his rivals had any response to his acceleration on the 6.5km, 8.5% climb, and they were left scrapping among themselves for the minor places over the remaining 50km.
Victory in Andorra la Vella marked his longest solo victory at a grand tour, at the only one of the three which he is left to win, and his second in four days, having claimed victory and the leader’s jersey on stage one’s individual time trial.
Pogacar said afterwards: “I didn’t have to do that, but the pace was super high already on the first climb, then on the second climb we were going all-out from the bottom, then when Jay [Vine, his teammate] let me pass from the wheel of Decathlon I thought I don’t want to be also isolated against all these GC riders because they would go against me.
“I tried an attack and hoped I could survive until the finish. It was pretty tough but beautiful out there.
“Any gap is more than enough but it’s super good because now I can be calm and confident for the next days.”
Asked about his memories of first ever grand tour stage win, which came in the 2019 edition of the Vuelta and in Andorra, he said: “I never thought that I would ride like this, I have such beautiful memories from the first time in Andorra, it’s one of my favourite moments of the career so I will never forget that day.”
Stage four was a punchy 104.8km run starting and beginning in Andorra la Vella and tackling four climbs: three category-one ascents in a row before a final category three. As many of the peloton are based in the mountainous principality the route covered familiar terrain, but they were still powerless to respond to Monaco resident Pogacar once he accelerated away.
The two-time world champion extended his advance over the next category-one climb, the 9.9km Coll d’Ordino, while behind him, Giro d’Italia runner-up Felix Gall attacked with 33km to go.
Initially only Netcompany-Ineos’ Oscar Onley was able to follow his wheel, but four-time Vuelta champion Primoz Roglic bridged across 3km later and the trio were soon joined by more elite climbers in the form of home favourite Enric Mas and 2023 champion Sepp Kuss.
That group swelled to seven by the finish line, with 20-year-old Jarno Widar of Lotto Intermarche, one of the peloton’s most exciting young talents, winning the sprint for second from Decathlon CMA CGM’s Gall, two minutes and 39 seconds down on Pogacar.
24-year-old Onley was fourth on the stage – all the more impressive given he admitted afterwards he had “been up all night on the toilet” – and now leads the best young riders’ classification.
The Scot cut a deflated figure afterwards and said of Pogacar, “We just let him do our thing, and race between ourselves.”
UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s Pogacar now leads the Vuelta by 3’21” from compatriot Roglic, who won the race the last time Pogacar competed, with Mas third another 11 seconds back. Kuss sits fourth at 3’44” and Onley fifth at 3’45”.
