Van Garderen stills leads as Bouhanni takes Sprint
BMC Racing Team's Tejay Van Garderen leads the Volta a Catalunya after 4 stages. Cofidis's Nacer Bouhanni wins final sprint
The 4th stage of the Volta a Catalunya started with snow. Due to the bad weather conditions, the organization decided to change the start from Llivia to Montefferer, 60 kilometers into the south. The riders seemed quite happy about this decision. Riding with 1 degree with snow aren´t the best conditions for a downhill start.
At 12:30 the whole race drove in a convoy the rode to the new start of the 4th stage.
When the whole race arrived at the new start the riders took their bikes and the neutralized start began. The rode went slightly downhill, so the speed in the peloton were very high right from the drop of the flag.
An early break of 10 riders was swallowed up to be replaced by 5 riders, who got 3 minutes advantage but was caught with 20 kms to go
Astana's Jakub Fuglsang and Dario Cataldo launched an attack with 15 kilometers to go but was brought back by the peloton looking to set up their Spinters for the final showdown.
However with a small second-category Tudo del Puig climb before the finish Chris Froome, David Gaudu, Alejandro Valverde and teammate Marco Soler attacked the peloton hoping to get away a gap before the descent.
This did work but the speed of the Sprinters teams reeled them in with just five kilometers to go.
The Cofidis's top sprinter Bouhanni crossed the line well ahead of Davide Cimolai and Daryl Impey.
Tejay Van Garderen retains the leader's jersey and is 41s ahead of Samuel Sanchez and 44s ahead of Geraint Thomas.
Tomorrow's stage 5 features a few smaller climbs inland from the coast, but the mountain top finish at Lo Port at over 1,000 metres.
This could be a very animated stage with attacks from the gun and GC attacks on the final climb. A stage not to be missed!
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2017 Volta a Catalunya Stage 4 Results
1 Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 3:04:27
2 Davide Cimolai (Ita) FDJ
3 Daryl Impey (RSA) Orica-Scott
4 Alexander Edmonson (Aus) Orica-Scott
5 Dion Smith (NZl) Wanty - Groupe Gobert
6 Pieter Serry (Bel) Quick-Step Floors
7 Enrico Gasparotto (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
8 Petr Vakoc (Cze) Quick-Step Floors
9 Jose Rojas (Spa) Movistar Team
10 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo
2017 Volta a Catlunya General Classifcation after Stage 4
1 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team 13:29:00
2 Samuel Sanchez (Spa) BMC Racing Team 0:00:41
3 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:44
4 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:45
5 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:49
6 Marc Soler (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:10
7 Alberto Contador (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:01:13
8 Adam Yates (GBr) Orica-Scott 0:01:18
9 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 0:01:25
10 Jarlinson Pantano (Col) Trek-Segafredo