Damiano Caruso (37) proves age is just a number with impressive breakaway win on stage 4 of Vuelta a Burgos 2025

Bahrain - Victorious' vastly experienced 37-year-old Italian Damiano Caruso has proved there is plenty of life in the old dog yet, powering to an impressive victory from the breakaway on stage 4 of the 2025 Vuelta a Burgos.

A strong seven-man group forced their way clear to form the early breakaway, including Rui Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates - XRG), Ben Zwiehoff (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe), Javier Romo (Movistar Team), Damiano Caruso (Bahrain - Victorious), Rui Costa (EF Education - EasyPost), Nickolas Zukowsky (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) and Larry Warbasse (Tudor Pro Cycling Team). A counter that included experienced Lidl-Trek man Julien Bernard did try to make it across, but with 75km to go, the Frenchman and José María García were still caught in no man's land and were then caught by the peloton a short while later.

Heading into the final 40km, the breakaway's advantage over the peloton was still around three and a half minutes, giving them plenty of chance for a stage win, despite the up and down parcours awaiting them before the line. With the gap still around that same distance with just 25km to go, the leading 7 could begin to plan their route to a stage win.

The question then became, which member of the breakaway would be the first to make a move? As it turned out, that was the experienced Caruso, who kicked clear ahead of all his rivals before the final climb of the day. Showing that despite his age, his legs were as strong as ever, Caruso never looked back from that initial attack, entering the final 5km with a lead of around 1:20, more than enough to take it all the way home for an impressively dominant stage win. Behind the Italian, a fight between Rui Oliveira, Rui Costa, Ben Zwiehoff and Larry Warbasse decided the rest of the stage podium.