Vuelta a Espana: Primoz Roglic wins stage 4 and jumps into race lead

Primoz Roglic is back to his best form, confirmed today during the Vuelta a Espana where the Jumbo-Visma rider put on a very strong performance, to take the sprint win in the hilltop finale in Laguardia, to become the new race leader.

Joan Bou (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Jarrad Drizners (Lotto Soudal), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan Team), Alessandro De Marchi (Israel - Premier Tech), Ander Okamika (Burgos-BH) and James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost) went up the road early on. With Lutsenko threatening the GC and the red jersey the group was not given much freedom, with Jumbo-Visma, Trek - Segafredo and BORA - hansgrohe controlling the race.

The heat, rolling terrain and wind have played into what was a very rough day. The breakaway was caught early on, before the start of the penultimate climb, with a peloton that was no longer compact. The pace was not high, allowing several sprinters to remain in contact with the peloton.

Primoz Roglic sprinted to the seconds at the top of the climb, with Julian Alaphilippe behind. Quick-Step tried to split the peloton in the descent but without effect. The riders went relatively compact into the final hilltop however and into the final sprint. Some moves early on, but the pace was easy until the final few hundred meters, with Trek leading out the sprint.

Pedersen was launched perfectly into the sprint, but he could not sustain the same power as Primoz Roglic, who dominantly sprinted to the win in the tough gradients. Roglic is the new leader of the Vuelta, with Pedersen having yet another second place, and Enric Mas riding into third place on the day.