photo credits @ Ruta del Sol
Direct Energie’s Bryan Coquard claimed stage 4 of the Ruta del Sol today, after nixing FDJ’s Daniel Hoelgaard during a final sprint for the finish.
Today’s penultimate stage consisted of a 179.3 kilometer route from La Campana to the region’s capital in Sevilla.
Although some climbs were included, the last 60 kilometers were mostly flat and more than suitable for the sprinters.
Martijn Budding (Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij), Jerome Cousin (Cofidis), Martijn Keizer (LottoNL-Jumbo), Lukas Ossian (CCC Sprandi Polkowice), Diego Rubio (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Jens Wallays (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise), marked the day’s first breakaway group.
From there, the sextet went on to establish a modest advantage of about three-minutes over the peloton.
However, as the race entered into the final 20 kilometers, the escapees’ lead had been reduced to just 30 seconds, as they were subsequently reined in by the peloton just a few kilometers from the finish.
In the final sprint, Coquard managed to overtake Hoelgaard during the waning moments of the sprint, to seize the victory ahead of his Norwegian rival.
Meanwhile, Alejandro Valverde and Alberto Contador both finished safely in the peloton to retain their grip on the top two positions in the overall classification, with just one-second separating the two as they head into tomorrow’s final stage.
Top 10 Finishers
1 Bryan Coquard (Fra) Direct Energie 2 Daniel Hoelgaard (Nor) FDJ 3 Hugo Hofstetter (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 4 Moreno Hofland (Ned) Lotto Soudal 5 Raymond Kreder (Ned) Roompot – Nederlandse Loterij 6 Mihkel Räim (Est) Israel Cycling Academy 7 Roman Maikin (Rus) Gazprom – Rusvelo 8 Maxime Farazijn (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen – Baloise 9 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Cannondale-Drapac 10 Eduard Prades (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
General classification after stage 4
1 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 13:12:07 2 Alberto Contador (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:01 3 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ 0:00:06 4 Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky 0:00:21 5 Diego Rosa (Ita) Team Sky 0:00:45 6 Mikel Landa (Spa) Team Sky 0:00:48 7 Sébastien Reichenbach (Swi) FDJ 0:00:52 8 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Cannondale-Drapac 0:01:29 9 Ondrej Cink (Cze) Bahrain-Merida 0:01:48 10 Javier Moreno (Spa) Bahrain-Merida 0:01:50
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