DISCUSSION Vuelta a España Stage 4 | Did Jonas Vingegaard give up the red jersey on purpose? Are Lidl - Trek's tactics off?

The fourth stage of the Vuelta a España wasn’t entirely flat, but it was regardless another great opportunity for the sprinters to fight for the win. It was the longest stage of the entire Vuelta and also the last outside of the Spanish territory.

The first half of the day was packed with climbs, a hilly start that favored breakaway action. However, it was just five riders who went down the road and formed the break of the day: Sean Quinn, Louis Vervaeke, Joel Nicolau, Kamiel Bonneau and Mario Aparicio.

Quinn and Nicolau were particularly active, as they were in pursuit of the KOM jersey, which was on the shoulders of Italian rider Alessandro Verre since yesterday. It was Nicolau who gathered the most points and will wear the jersey tomorrow.

Soon after that, the break was taken down due to Lidl – Trek’s relentless pace, a similar situation to what happened in yesterday’s stage. After that, it was an uneventful day, with a couple of lone wolves (Sinhué Fernández first, Bruno Armirail afterwards) trying their luck to surprise the peloton, with no success whatsoever.

The final sprint was slightly uphill, which was expected to favour Pedersen. The Dane, however, was not well positioned today and didn’t stand a chance to contest the stage win. It was Alpecin the team launching the sprint, but Jasper Philipsen didn’t have the final kick and was defeated by Ben Turner, who achieved his third professional victory and the most prestigious one by far.

Even if the day ended up in a bunch sprint, there was an important change in the GC. David Gaudu moved up to first place, overtaking Jonas Vingegaard thanks to having a smaller sum of results, and leading the GC of a Grand Tour for the first time in his career.

Once the stage finished, we asked some of our writers to share their thoughts and main takeaways about what happened today.

A completely wasted day by the organizers. Considering that the 2025 Vuelta has plenty of mountain stages and as many as 10 summit finishes, missing the chance to cross the Alps only to end with a sprint stage—where not even Jasper Philipsen was dropped—is unbelievable. A real shame, but what can you expect from an organizer that designs a route while neglecting the entire south of the country (something that happens more and more often).

As for the stage itself, chapeau to Ben Turner, who is increasingly becoming a very promising sprinter, and chapeau to INEOS for their work in the finale. Philipsen’s teammate made a mistake, though, which cost the Belgian the win.

And it’s time to start criticizing Lidl-Trek. They did an excellent job in the Giro d’Italia and performed at a good level in the Tour de France, but in the Vuelta so far they are completely missing the mark. Today we saw Mads Pedersen come back strongly in the final meters. He was the strongest in an uphill drag finish, but they failed to position him properly at the front of the peloton. Teams also win races, and today INEOS gave Lidl a lesson.

A nothing burger. It is a stage I did not have good expectations of, and it sure did not deliver. In the second or third week it's almost a 100% breakaway win day. But somehow most teams and riders simply do not want to take risks this early in a Grand Tour nowadays, which is very bizarre. Towards the second week you will see teams that were not in the breakaway today trying with all they have to win a stage from a breakaway, and most will not succeed.

Alpine ascents, 2000 meters of altitude, but not even one sprinter was put into difficulty. So we had a bunch sprint, but in traditional Vuelta style, it had to be uphill. This is fine though, an enjoyable sprint, but I can't say the strongest won likely.

Edward Planckaert looked the strongest but he was stuck on leadout duty, and he accidentally blocked Jasper Philipsen. Ben Turner took advantage of all this to take a victory that was to come sooner or later - he is incredibly talented, and perfect for these uphill sprints - and topped the two Alpecin riders directly.

What a victory for Ben Turner, outsprinting someone like Jasper Philipsen! The Briton has been quietly improving year by year and he is showing excellent form now. Remember he didn’t plan to do the Vuelta, and he had to fill in for Lucas Hamilton at very short notice. He was in Renewi on Thursday last week, went to the Vuelta on Friday and won a stage on Tuesday. What a crazy week it has been for him.

Team Alpecin did a great job as usual to position Jasper Philipsen and launch him for the final sprint. However, I think his lead-out man Edward Planckaert made a crucial mistake. They were riding too close to the barriers (on the left) and Philipsen had Turner and Vernon to his right, so that meant Planckaert had to move to his right after being done with the lead-out in order to give Philipsen enough space to sprint.

However, he didn’t realise about that and didn’t open a gap for Philipsen, fully boxing him out. Philipsen had to wait and move to his right to launch his sprint, after Turner had overtaken him already. As they were too close to the finish line, there was just not enough time for Philipsen to regain speed and beat Turner.

A bitter second place for the Belgian, who will have to wait until Saturday for another chance in Zaragoza. Still a better outcome than Pedersen’s, whose team never stopped working for the second day in a row, but he was incapable of finishing the job. Lidl - Trek has been putting on immense work to control the breakaways, but I think they are paying the price at the end of the stages, because they didn’t have enough riders to position Pedersen in the last kilometres in any of the two bunch sprints.

They will have to reevaluate their tactics, it doesn’t make much sense to burn your whole team but then not have a lead-out for your sprinter. They have just been doing all the work for other teams in the flat stages basically.

David Gadu knew he had the opportunity of his life to grab the leader’s jersey and he didn’t let it slip away. He just had to finish eight or more places ahead of Vingegaard to secure it and he went for it. I also think Vingegaard didn’t care at all about keeping the jersey or not, as long as he didn’t lose time to Gaudu. He doesn’t have to go through the podium ceremony and all that protocol now, and he can recover it tomorrow after the team time trial, as I highly doubt that Groupama – FDJ can beat Visma.

Regarding the weak breakaway, the same I said yesterday applies for today. It was once again another great opportunity for a strong break to succeed, given the hilly terrain of the first 80km. And yet again little ambition could be seen from sprinterless teams. A joke of a breakaway with 5 riders was established, making the final outcome totally predictable. Teams will remember about these stages in the third week and regret wasting so many opportunities early in the race.