Finally a stage that can shake up the standings for the climbers. Longer day for the riders today with 184 km. Despite the hard final climb, the KOM points are awarded before that. A great incentive for the breakaway.
Kipkemboi and U25 leader White are the first to jump from the peloton.
Aquilani, Kochetkov and Navardauskas are the next three to attack.
Pajur is the last one to make it in the breakaway. Afterwards the peloton thwarted every other attempt. The 6 escapees quickly open up a 4 minute gap as Navardauskas wins the lone intermediate sprint of the day.
We fast forward now as the riders reach the climbing circuit. Navardauskas takes 6 points from the first KOM ahead of White and Aquilani.
The peloton is still 3 minutes behind as we see that Caja Rural, Tryg and Le Creuset are setting the pace.
The Bonduelle duo get dropped from the breakaway after the first loop of climbing.
The 2nd loop is now done by the peloton, the breakaway's advantage is down to 2 minutes. Staffbase are also contributing to the chase now.
The breakaway just manages to take the final KOM points ahead of the peloton. White wins the uphill sprint over Navardauskas this time which puts them both on 10 points.
The final lap is starting now. We see the peloton is already reduced to about 50 riders with 17 km to go.
Serrano attacks early before the final climb. Schlegel and Hindley are in his wheel.
Hindley and Serrano gap Schlegel over the top.
Schlegel catches up on the penultimate uphill. The peloton is under a minute behind with the Glanbia climbing duo at the front. All the team leaders are still here.
Here we go, the final climb! 2 km of over 10%. We see the favourites are almost back together.
Serrano again doesn't waste time and attacks.
Serrano is looking good under the flamme rouge as he's maintaining his lead over the favourites.
But now with 500 m to go he starts to struggle with the steep gradients. Kozhatayev, Warbasse, Vasyliv and Talansky are the closest chasers.
200 m to go and Serrano is still holding off the other four riders. Then there is a gap to the rest.
And he makes it! Gonzalo Serrano wins stage 4 ahead of Kozhatayev and Vasyliv. Warbasse and Talansky also finished at the same time.
Ablenado then leads the other favourites across the line 40'' later. The next group after that loses over 3 minutes. A group including Kuss, Henao and Zimmermann.
As expected the top 3 riders from today's stage occupy the top 3 spots in the GC. Mareczko maintains his lead in the points classification, while White doubles up on his jersey tally as he gets the nod to wear the KOM jersey tomorrow and he is still the U25 leader.
Vuelta al Tachira - Stage 4 
