Valverde shows he is the undisputed leader in La Molina
March 22 nd 2018 - 09:45
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) did not miss out on the opportunity to take control of the “Volta” a Catalunya once again by winning the fourth stage of the race, which took the riders from Llanars (Vall de Camprodon) to La Molina (Alp) over a distance of 170.8 kilometres. It was on the climb to the ski resort that he proved to be the strongest ahead of the young Egan Bernal (Team Sky) and his team mate, Nairo Quintana.
Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) was the first protagonist of a high-paced stage (49 km in the first hour), in which the breakaway group did not form until after kilometre 80. The Colombian rider made a solo attack on the day’s first climb, the Port d'El Jou (a first category climb), leaving behind several riders and managing to take a one minute lead over them. Meanwhile, Movistar Team controlled the peloton effortlessly, leaving the leader Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) arriving some 24 minutes behind the now new leader.
Chavito, the young Colombian rider, with podiums in the Giro and the Vuelta under his belt, also summited the Cima Peris of the “Volta”, the lengthy Coll de la Creuta (hors catégorie), on his own, then swiftly passed through La Molina, before a long descent toward Alp and the final climb of the day to the Pyrenean ski resort. The Slovenian rider Matej Mohoric (Bahrein-Merida), an excellent rider downhill, demonstrated his skills leaving Chaves and Valverde behind. The latter tried to chase him but lost one minute, but the game was on on the first ramps of the climb towards La Molina.
Movistar Team highlighted its impressive potential in this race, and started to perform counter-attacks with the help of the local rider Marc Soler, who was very responsive throughout the climb. Finally, he and both Valverde and Quintana took the lead of the race alongside two climbers with potential such as Bernal and the French rider Pierre-Roger Latour (Ag2r La Mondiale), but both Soler and Latour dropped out before the last kilometre, where Valverde showcased his speed to raise his hands arms with Bernal in his shadow and Quintana six seconds behind. The rider from Murcia took the lead in the general classification with a 19 second lead over Bernal and 26 seconds over Quintana. “The team has done an incredible job throughout the day and we’ve seen how the last climb unfolded”, said the Movistar rider.
Valverde was able to rely on the potential of his team which, as well as having the general leader, has Nairo Quintana in third position and Marc Soler in seventh, one minute and eighteen seconds behind. “Because there were three of us, we had a clear advantage. I just made sure that I was there and went for the stage win at the end. From now on, Bernal is the most important rival. He is a great rider with a bright future ahead of him”, declared the Movistar leader, who today added another victory to his tally in the “Volta”, with a total of nine stage wins.