Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) sprinted clear at the top of a punchy, short climb on the finish of Stage 4, taking the win and the overall lead from teammate Edoardo Affini.
The Slovenian had come into the race with his form uncertain after a late comeback from injuries sustained in the Tour de France. There was little sign of being hampered as he accelerated away to win convincingly with a trademark explosive acceleration on the short ascent to the finish in Laguardia.
The result saw Roglič pull on the red jersey, a familiar sight for recent years at the Vuelta, as he became the fourth rider in four stages from Jumbo-Visma to take on the lead after they won the opening team time trial.
“It was always the team plan to change the lead every day,” Roglič said, “so today it was my turn.
“We know why we came here, to try and have the jersey later in Madrid, but the situation is what it is. So we’ll enjoy the situation just as it is for this moment.
“It was a super hard stage, all day, super fast, huh? And in the final there was an opportunity to fight for the stage win and I had it, so I gave it my all.”
Australian Jarrad Drizners (Lotto Soudal) fought into the early break, but it quickly became apparent that Jumbo-Visma weren’t in a charitable mood as they kept the gap in hand. Drizners joined Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan) and Alessandro De Marchi (Israel-Premier Tech) along with James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost), Ander Okamika (Burgos-BH) and Joan Bou (Euskaltel-Euskadi).
Drizners and Bou had a battle for the mountains points on course, but the Euskatel-Euskadi took out the fight and moved in the King of the mountains jersey.
The race heated up on the Herrera climb, with Julian Alaphilippe (QuickStep-Alpha Vinyl) and Australian Jay Vine (Alpecin-Deceuninck) attacking over the top, though Roglič was strongest, and managed to claim some bonus seconds at the head of a whittled down peloton.
There were several attacks on the subsequent descent but everything was together for the sharp kick up to the line in the final kilometre, with slopes of up to eight per cent greeting riders. Trek-Segafredo led out the race as the climb intensified in the final 500 metres with Kenny Elissonde (Trek-Segafredo) at the head of the race for Mads Pedersen. However, when Roglič launched his sprint, the Dane could only up the pace but not match his Slovenian rival, having to settle for second place.
12 riders finished on the same time as Roglič, but Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco), Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) and Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana-Qazaqstan) all lost seven seconds and saw a dent to their overall ambitions.
Roglič now leads the race by 13 seconds over teammate Sepp Kuss, with Ethan Hayter (INEOS Grenadiers) third 26 seconds behind.
La Vuelta continues tomorrow with a hilly course in prospect on Stage 5. Watch the race on SBS and SBS On Demand from 10:50pm AEST.
