Max Schachmann commends the new leader of Itzulia GC: "Joao was outstanding today and deserves the leader's jersey"

With close GC after three days of racing, the yellow jersey of Max Schachmann was always going to be others' target. The finish of stage 4 included a challenging climb with slopes up to 20% that simply didn't play into hands of the Soudal - Quick-Step rider who had to momentarily let go of the group of favorites.

When the slopes eased a bit, Schachmann was able to reconnect with the other favorites again - except for Joao Almeida who was cruised the line half a minute ahead of that chasing group and thus replaces the German as a leader of the general classification with two days left.

"It was once again a pretty long fight for the breakaway and it took a while to form," Schachmann begins his story of the day in post-race reactions for Cycling Pro Net. "When the breakaway finally rode away, everyone was kind of dead because the speed was a bit too high."

"So it came down to the last steep climb. I knew it was not going to be in my favor but I had a clear plan [of how to approach the climb - Izua, ed.]. I knew that if I go at my own speed and over the top there's a gap, I can still close it [in the downhill]. And that's what I did. But Joao [Almeida] did an outstanding ride and, well, he deserves to be in the leader's jersey after today."

The German rider eventually sprinted to a third place, behind solo winner Almeida and his teammate Isaac del Toro. This means that Schachmman also loses the overall lead to the Portuguese rider from UAE Team Emirates - XRG who now holds a 30-second advantage over the former leader.

"It was the maximum to be again second in the bunch sprint but I'm happy overall. Like I said, it's a very difficult climb due to its gradients and the laws of physics simply didn't play in my favor there," Schachmann wraps with a smirk on his face.