photo credits @ Volta
Primož Roglič held off Juan Ayuso along the summit finish to claim stage 4 of the Volta a Catalunya today, earning the Slovenian rider his first of the season.
The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider went with UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s Ayuso when the Spanish race leader attacked with under 3km to go on the climb to Montserrat Mil·lenari. Despite the latter’s best efforts, Roglič managed to out-power him, and in doing so wrested the leader’s jersey as well.
The duo now share the same time, but Roglič has claimed the lead via count-back.
Meanwhile, another group of favorites led by Enric Mas (Movistar) came in three seconds behind, while other riders like Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) came in further down.
Earlier, a dozen escapees jettisoned the peloton, while two eventually rode clear on the first categorized climb, Cat. 2 Turó del Puig. By the foot of the Monserrat climb, the duo was 1:18 ahead of the UAE-Emirates-powered peloton, with a quartet of chasers in between. Soudal-Quick Step took over the front of the bunch to absorb the chasers, while the last of the escapees remained 50 seconds ahead with 6 km to go.
Marc Soler of UAE-Emirates was instrumental in bringing back the final escapee, while Adam Yates took over when the leader’s group, which was now down to 10.
Ayuso later attacked with 2.5 km to go. At first, Roglič couldn’t respond but third place Mikel Landa could.
However, Roglič successfully bridged his way to the two leaders with 1.6 km to go to seize the victory by a wheel length over his rival.
