Stage four of Vuelta Ciclista al Peru brings you pretty much nothing. There's a hill about 30 km from goal, but it really isn't steep enough to 'scare' the sprinters. What could be interesting, though, is the length of this stage. 200 km is very long for a bunch of CT-riders, and it will be interesting to see if that has any effect.
Maybe the long distance scared some riders. It did take some time before the first riders atarted to attack - in fact, I had to wait more than 30 km. before anything happened The first riders who attacked also ended up being the ones who formed the breakaway of the day. In this break, we'd find: Azevedo (Wiggle), Page (Slipstream B), Swindlehurst (Dasani), Zachary (Gatorade B). Along with them we also had Armstrong, Bush and Mr. Dope.
And then we had a 'stage as usual'. The gap increased slowly, but steadily, and the breakaway swept the stage for intermediate points. With 100 km to go, they break had a gap of 10'35 minutes to the peloton - and then it started decreasing. In the peloton, Fed-Ex had decided to go to the front, maybe because they had hopes for Siedler for this stage.
Just before the hill of the stage, Mr. Dope, Armstrong and Bush were left behind. At this point, the P had 3'30 up to Bush and Co. Later on, Zachary of Gatorade B was also dropped.
Question was -- if the leading group made it over the top of the hill, would they be able to hold off the peloton on the downhill section?
Well, the three leading riders did make it over the top with Azevedo passing first, meaning that he would take the mountain jersey from Dyachkin. And at this point, with 40 km to go, they still had a gap of 4'11 down to the peloton. It began to look brighter for the three riders in front.
Behind them, they had a chasing peloton - and a very worried leader, Ribeiro, who could go and lose the jersey to Swindlehurst who's just 1'44 behind. And they just couldn't make the gap decrease. 20 km later, they still had a gap of 4'04 to bridge.
It soon became clear that this was going to be a battle between the three of them: Page, Swindlehurst, who would most probably take the yellow jersey, and Azevedo who got lucky this time.
On the final meters, Swindlehurst got in trouble. He started to look tired, and couldn't keep Azevedo's wheel. Therefore, it was down to Azevedo and Page.
Here we are with 1 km to go. Swindlehurst is keeping up and is looking to take the yellow jersey. But can Page take today's stage win?
He sure can! Page takes the victory ahead of Azevedo and Swindlehurst.
And 3'11 later, the peloton comes in with Zachary "winning" the peloton sprint. This also means that Swindlehurst indeed takes the jersey from Ribeiro.
The first riders who attacked also ended up being the ones who formed the breakaway of the day. In this break, we'd find: Azevedo (Wiggle), Page (Slipstream B), Swindlehurst (Dasani), Zachary (Gatorade B). Along with them we also had Armstrong, Bush and Mr. Dope.
