06/04/2023

Jonas Vingegaard outsprints Mikel Landa for victory on Stage 4 of Itzulia Basque Country

Jonas Vingegaard consolidated his lead in the general classification at the Itzulia Basque Country as he outsprinted Mikel Landa for victory after a downhill run to the line.

Stage 4 had quite a lot of rolling roads into Saturtzi with another difficult day that was expected to be quite open with both breakaway and GC riders possibly fighting for the stage win, Harm Vanhoucke (Team DSM), Jonathan Klever Caicedo (EF Education-EasyPost), Natnael Tesfatsion (Trek - Segafredo), Jon Barrenetxea (Caja Rural - Seguros RGA) and Alan Jousseaume (TotalEnergies) all made it into the early break.

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King of the Mountains, Jon Barrenetxea was once again in the breakaway, picking up points to further consolidate his lead in the race for the polka dot jersey.

With Team JaycoAlUla powering the front of the peloton, the time gap to the breakaway fell dramatically before they were eventually brought back just metres before the intermediate sprint as the general classification riders swarmed, attempting to claim the bonus seconds. Race leader Jonas Vingegaard took first to extend his time gap at the top and taking the virtual lead in the points classification.

As the race reached the foot of the final climb, EF Education-EasyPost took charge of the pace setting with Esteban Chaves, Richard Carapaz and Rigoberto Uran on the front of the peloton. As Chaves and Uran peeled off Carapaz attacked. Although he couldn't make a gap, a counter attack by Vingegaard left the field scattered behind him.

Only Mikel Landa was able to follow Vingegaard with the duo having a lead of 31 seconds at the top of the climb. With a techinal descent to the line, it seemed like an insurmountable gap for Vingegaard and Landa who were proving why they were one and two on the GC.

With the lead duo into time-trial mode, they entered the final kilometre with just a 10 second lead and as they began to play cat-and-mouse thinking of the stage win suddenly the catch looked a real possibility. Ultimately they just had enough time in the bag as Vingegaard launched his sprint and claimed the win ahead of Landa with Mauro Schmid best of the rest in third.