Vuelta a España stage 4: Sam Bennett muscles to win fast sprint

On the first day for sprinters at the Vuelta a España, Deceuninck-Quick-Step set up their sprinter Sam Bennett and the Irishman delivered in a fast, downhill finish, just nipping Jasper Philipsen (UAE) at the line.

After a high-speed set-up on wide-open highways — the peloton was averaging well over 60kph in the final 10km — the finish was technical, with two hard turns inside the last 500m.

With 2km to go, Deceuninck-Quick-Step took the reins, and commanded the front until a righthand turn at 500m. At a lefthand turn at 300m, Philipsen blazed through the inside of the corner and jumped hard, getting a gap on Bennett and the rest of the sprinters. It was only in the final meters that Bennett was able to get on his wheel and then come around at the line, with Jakub Mareczko (CCC) third.

“It was so fast in the run-in, a bit nervous,” Bennett said. “It was fast all day, but a bit sketchy at the end.”

Indeed, the riders covered the 192km stage in 3:53.

“In the final, we weren’t all together yet,” Bennett said of his teammates. “We said we needed to be together at one point, and at that point we all came together perfectly. We just asked three guys to be there, but the entire team was there. When we went into the last left hander it looked a bit dirty, and we weren’t sure how much grip there was. I saw 300 meters to go, and Jasper came up in the inside and got a jump. I didn’t think I would be able to get him.”

But get him he did, and the Bennett was all smiles and congratulations for his teammates at the end.

There was no change to the general classification, with Primož Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) holding onto the lead, 5 seconds ahead of Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up National) and 13 seconds before Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers).

“It was super fast and a little scary,” Roglic said. “The team did a good job of protecting me. One day more in red.”

Movistar’s Enric Mas echoed Roglic’s sentiment on the fast day being less than relaxing.

“It’s been anything but an easy day, we had to be wary from the start,” said Mas, who sits fourth overall and is wearing the best young rider’s white jersey. “But luckily nothing happened although it was a tense stage for the whole day. We did well today, trying to spend as little energy as possible.”

How the stage played out

After the Vuelta opened earlier this week with three climbing stages in a row, today’s stage was an easier one — at least one paper. In fact, the first half was downhill before roughly leveling out for the run-in to Ejea de los Caballeros with a single sprint point at 169km.

It was a long day for four riders, who went out on the attack just 2km into the stage. Harry Tanfield (AG2R-La Mondiale), Luis Ángel Maté (Cofidis), Jesus Ezquerra (Burgos-BH) and Willie Smit (Burgos-BH) got clear almost from the gun, and spent hour rotating together across northern Spain.

Behind, Bora-Hansgrohe, Trek-Segafredo, and Deceuninck-Quick-Step shared duties on the front of the peloton.

Coming into the sprint point, Tanfield attacked to take maximum points and a few meters on his breakaway companions. Smit bridged up, sat on for a bit, and then attacked Tanfield on a bit of a rise.

It was all for naught as the peloton got serious and ramped up the pace to set up the sprinters for the finish.

Maté and Ezquerra were caught at 22km to go, and with Tanfield brought to heel soon after with Movistar doing much of the work on the front of the peloton. Smit stubbornly stayed out in front for another few kilometers, riding on his top tube with the massive peloton just a few hundred meters behind on a wide-open highway.

Once inside the final 10km, a fast day just got faster, as Movistar wound it up to keep its GC riders safe and Bora-Hansgrohe and Deceuninck did the same to position their sprinters.

UAE and Philipsen nearly spoiled Deceuninck’s party for Bennett, but the 2020 Tour de France green jersey showed he still has the legs to finish it off at the Vuelta.