OFFICIAL Stage 4 Results

[Laurens De Jong]

Hello, Vuelta a España Gamers!

 

STAGE Grade: B

 

I rate today’s stage a B. Truthfully, whatever excitement this stage could have delivered was quashed by the hard racing early on, and Tadej Pogačar’s supernatural solo victory. There are plenty of ski lifts in Andorra, but I didn’t see any.

 

Route: 3/5         GC: 4/5             Tactics: 2/5       Sprint: 1/5         Surprises: 2/5

 

 

Tadej Pogačar is determined to win every stage in the 2026 Vuelta a España, or at least to be in the leader’s jersey after every stage. That much is clear from stage 4. Fifty kilometers, solo. That is almost half the stage. What do I write about this?

 

“Cycling is a team sport.” Today it wasn’t, not for the winner. “Cycling is suffering.” I didn’t see Pogačar suffer at all. He’s still in zone 2. While he’s soft-pedaling to victory, I’m running out of catchphrases. Can we at least “enjoy our beautiful sport of cycling?”

 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Everyone can decide for themselves if there is beauty in complete dominance and total annihilation. As for me, there’s not much else I can write about Pogačar’s stage win. I’ll try: he rode the entire Coll d’Ordino on the outer ring. That’s 9.9 km at 7%. Outer ring. Going 5 km/h faster than anyone else. We live in remarkable times with a rider like Pogačar.

 

Cycling is a team sport. Team Visma | Lease-a-Bike thought so today. They put everything on the attack for Ben Tulett. Steven Kruijswijk, Bruno Armirail, Wout van Aert, all sacrificed themselves for Tulett. Get in the breakaway, be in the lead on the first summit of the day, then take your chances in the second half of the race. They didn’t have a chance. Decathlon CMA CGM caught them on the first climb and then Pogačar did his thing. Tulett finished nineteenth, almost eight minutes behind Pogačar.

 

Felix Gall finished third today. He suffered on the climbs but he managed third in large part thanks to the hard work by Gregor Mühlberger, his teammate. Cycling is a team sport.

 

Oscar Onley finished fourth today. He suffered on the climbs but he managed fourth in large part thanks to the hard work by Embret Svestad-Bårdseng, his teammate. Cycling is a team sport.

 

Cycling is suffering. Cian Uijtdebroeks, an outsider for the general classification, fractured his ankle in a crash on Sunday. Today he battled the time limit all day. In the road book, the time limit was set at 16%. Given Pogačar’s pace, that meant 25’54”. Uijtdebroeks’ deficit at the line: 26’11”. But he knew what I didn’t know: prior to the stage, the organizers had changed the time limit to 20%. The new target had become 32’07”, more than enough for Uitdebroeks to stay in the race. I have no idea why — that fracture won’t heal itself in the next three weeks. But our beautiful sport of cycling is suffering.

 

Equipo Kern Pharma did what they needed to do today. Iván Ramiro Sosa was in the early breakaway, the one instigated by Visma. Sosa is Kern Pharma’s most successful rider — eighteen wins, and usually in races where some climbing was involved. He could have had a decent finish, if not for the fact that everyone was racing as if this were a juniors race. I glossed over that earlier, but the breakaway being caught before the first climb wasn’t Pogačar’s doing. Everyone behind the breakaway was racing full gas from the start. UAE Team Emirates – XRG were controlling the race early on, but not to catch the breakaway. That was everyone else’s doing, and Sosa was one of the victims of that.

 

I can’t say I saw much of Kern Pharma for the rest of the race, but Ibon Ruiz managed eighteenth place. Ahead of Ben Tulett and several other riders who were once considered general classification contenders. It is Ruiz’ best classification in a grand tour stage. Earlier this year he won a one-day race in the French Alps we just left. That was an exciting race — Léo Bisiaux was on his way to winning but was overtaken by two Kern Pharma riders: Ruiz and Sosa.

 

There is potential in our team, here.

 

Watch the final kilometers HERE.

Watch the La Vuelta highlights HERE. (with an interview of Kern Pharma’s Mats Wenzel!)

Watch the NBC Extended highlights HERE.

Read the TNT Sports report HERE.

 

Team Ansel made a big move in the standings today by winning the stage. Most points from the stage, most points overall, and most riders in the Top-25 (ten). They’re now third. The only Team Amalia could stay in their wake — most points from classifications and second place today.

 

In third were Team Hugo, just ahead of Team Charles. Next were Team Grace and then Team Joshua in sixth. That dropped them down to fourth overall. In seventh place today were Team Tadej, who lose two spots in the standings; now seventh.

 

Stage 5 on Wednesday is what could be considered a transition stage. The 2026 Vuelta a España’s one day in the Pyrenees is followed by a scramble to the south, where the remaining mountain stages will take place.

 

It’s stages like this that the liked of Mads Pedersen and Wout van Aert have shown up. I don’t believe in a van Aert victory; he burned a lot of matches today. That leaves Pedersen. Unless Visma gets their act together and controls the peloton for a Matthew Brennan win, then the obvious winner of stage 5 is Mads Pedersen. From a large breakaway, no doubt.

 

Standings after stage 4:

 

Rank	Name	Points	WAS	MOVES
1	Team Hugo*	684	1	0
2	Team Amalia*	670	2	0
3	Team Ansel*	616	6	3
4	Team Joshua*	587	3	-1
5	Team Charles*	576	5	0
6	Team Tadej*	535	4	-2
7	Team Grace*	500	7	0

 

Standings after stage 4 (including adults):

 

Rank	Name	Points	WAS	MOVES
1	Team Sam	704	2	1
2	Team Hugo*	684	1	-1
3	Team Kent	675	3	0
4	Team Valerie	673	5	1
5	Team Amalia*	670	4	-1
6	Team Charlotte	620	13	7
7	Team Ansel*	616	11	4
8	Team Jake	614	13	5
9	Team Kurt	590	16	7
10	Team Joshua*	587	6	-4
11	Team Amelia Katanski	580	15	4
12	Team Charles*	576	10	-2
13	Team Corsa	571	7	-6
14	Team Andrew	563	17	3
15	Team Melanie	561	9	-6
16	Team Roberto	558	19	3
17	Team Rob	545	18	1
18	Team Jonwaine	543	24	6
19	Team Cameron	538	22	3
20	Team Tadej*	535	8	-12
21	Team Craig	522	12	-9
22	Team Laurens	521	25	3
23	Team Julie	508	19	-4
24	Team Grace*	500	21	-3
25	Team Doug	466	23	-2
26	Team Adam	434	27	1
27	Team Suzanne	373	28	1
28	Team Amelia Bondie	369	26	-2

 

Complete breakdown of points from stage 4:

 

Name	STAGE RESULTS	YELLOW JERSEY	GREEN JERSEY	POLKA DOT JERSEY	WHITE JERSEY	POINTS/CLASS	TOTAL	PREVIOUS	CUM. TOTAL
Team Amalia*	196	53	12	8	5	78	274	396	670
Team Ansel*	207	53	6	12	6	77	284	332	616
Team Charles*	176	45	9	8	5	67	243	333	576
Team Grace*	168	36	6	8	6	56	224	276	500
Team Hugo*	176	45	11	8	5	69	245	439	684
Team Joshua*	154	38	9	6	5	58	212	375	587
Team Tadej*	138	29	9	6	2	46	184	351	535

 

Complete breakdown of points from stage 4 (including adults):

 

Name	STAGE RESULTS	YELLOW JERSEY	GREEN JERSEY	POLKA DOT JERSEY	WHITE JERSEY	POINTS/CLASS	TOTAL	PREVIOUS	CUM. TOTAL
Team Adam	150	40	6	6	0	52	202	232	434
Team Amalia*	196	53	12	8	5	78	274	396	670
Team Amelia Bondie	86	21	6	7	0	34	120	249	369
Team Amelia Katanski	181	52	9	12	5	78	259	321	580
Team Andrew	181	52	9	8	5	74	255	308	563
Team Ansel*	207	53	6	12	6	77	284	332	616
Team Cameron	197	53	6	8	5	72	269	269	538
Team Charles*	176	45	9	8	5	67	243	333	576
Team Charlotte	211	54	9	8	9	80	291	329	620
Team Corsa	146	38	9	8	0	55	201	370	571
Team Craig	137	35	8	6	5	54	191	331	522
Team Doug	153	38	6	8	0	52	205	261	466
Team Grace*	168	36	6	8	6	56	224	276	500
Team Hugo*	176	45	11	8	5	69	245	439	684
Team Jake	208	53	9	8	7	77	285	329	614
Team Jonwaine	209	53	6	8	7	74	283	260	543
Team Joshua*	154	38	9	6	5	58	212	375	587
Team Julie	153	36	6	12	1	55	208	300	508
Team Kent	197	53	9	8	5	75	272	403	675
Team Kurt	197	53	9	8	5	75	272	318	590
Team Laurens	195	52	6	8	5	71	266	255	521
Team Melanie	150	35	9	12	5	61	211	350	561
Team Rob	177	44	6	8	5	63	240	305	545
Team Roberto	181	52	8	12	5	77	258	300	558
Team Sam	203	53	9	8	5	75	278	426	704
Team Suzanne	108	29	6	7	2	44	152	221	373
Team Tadej*	138	29	9	6	2	46	184	351	535
Team Valerie	205	48	13	6	9	76	281	392	673

 

¡Viva la Vuelta!

 

-Laurens.