Mayer has had a good race and will enjoy his day today in the leader’s jersey but by tonight a serious contender should hold that honor. Lunke starts with an advantage over all his competitors after Gjensidige’s great ride yesterday. He is 4th favorite for the stage according to the organizers, but he will be worried about the first two names on that favorites list, Chiarello and Berhane who both start just a minute behind him. Many of the rest of the stage favorites have lost significant time, we may see a powerful breakaway as those riders look to get back into the race.
The action quickly heats up. 5k in and Berhane and Iturria, two top GC contenders are right on the front. Ahead 3 riders have a 20-second gap, they are Schachmann, Phelan, and Demiri
10k gone and the riders are on to the first climb of the day, the Alto de Coubet (Cat 1, 12.6k at 5.6%). The initial three attackers were caught but immediately joined the next attack and are in the front group of 6 along with Chumil, Vauquelin, and Hermans. 11 seconds behind them are three strong climbers in Ablenado, Alarcon, and Leemreize. Another 13 seconds behind are Wohrer, Dyrnes, and Yamada, then 16 seconds to the peloton.
Continued attacks up front bring the peloton almost back to the breakaway but also cause a major split, with 64 riders in the front group. Still 11k to climb.
An attack by Alarcon pulls 12 riders clear and Gjensidige are able to mass on the front of the peloton and calm things down. The peloton split also closes. The riders up front have 1’32, along with Alarcon they are: Phelan Schachmann Ablenado Chevrier Keizer Chumil Ciccone Hermans Leemreize Wohrer Dyrnes
2.8k to climb for the break. Vanderpool doing enough to keep the advantage reasonable, they only have 2’15. 12 different teams represented in the break so nobody has a numbers advantage. Leemreize best on GC at 2’23, none of them have any KOM points.
Chevrier launches the first attack with 800 meters to go in the first climb. Schachmann, Phelan and Hermans have been dropped from the break. The leaders only have 2’02 on the peloton.
Chevrier holds on and takes 16 points. Dyrnes almost catches him but cracks 100 meters shy and settles for 2nd and 12 points. Ciccone (10) and Leemreize (8) are 3rd and 4th.
Knotten leads the peloton over 3’16 down. Only 2 riders have been dropped. Up front there are 6 riders together. Chevrier, Dyrnes, Ciccone, Leemreize, Keizer and Alarcon.
The break starts the Cat 1 Collada de Toses (32k at 3.2%) with 163k to ride. It is back to 8 up front as Ablenado and Wohrer have rejoined. The peloton is at 2’19 with Campbell working.
5k left to climb. The break’s lead got to just over 3 minutes but is now back to 1’57 with Marte on the front. Podium Ambition mounting a proper defense of the jersey. There are about 20 riders dropped from the peloton now.
Dyrnes just edges Wohrer for the KOM points. Leemreize and Ciccone next.
Dyrnes up to 28 mountain poins, good for virtual 2nd. The standings look like this:
The peloton reaches the summit 2’57 behind the break.
100k to go for the peloton which is 149 strong Marte and Hopkins doing the work. The break have just 2’10. It is steadily downhill for the next 30k to the first sprint point. Soon after that the riders will reach the first of the two finishing climbs and the race will get much harder.
Dyrnes jumps ahead to take the sprint points and the break reach the HC Port Del Canto with a lead of 2’29. The climb is 23k with an average of 4.7%. The hardest stretch is in the first 5k.
10k to climb for the peloton, which is down to 120 riders. Podium Ambition have run out of riders so Gjensidige have taken over on the front. After letting the lead reach 3’38 they have brought it back to 3’01. Rosskopf and Tjotta are setting the tempo.
2k to the top for the break. 40k in the stage. The lead is out to 3’44 as Gjensidige have also run out of chasers and nobody else is interested in working. Wohrer has been dropped from the break. Peloton down to 90.
Just under 1k to go and Ablenado attacks. All the others keep up for now.
Alarcon can’t hold the wheels in front and that allows Keizer and Ablenado to gap the rest. At the top it is very close but Ablenado takes the maximum. Peloton over 4 minutes back.
First 6 over the top are: Ablenado 20 + 0 = 20 Keizer 14 + 8 = 22 Leemreize 12 + 18 = 30 Ciccone 10 + 18 = 28 Chevrier 8 + 18 = 26 Dyrnes 6 +28 =34
Dyrnes has the virtual KOM jersey. Leemreize up to 3rd.
Selimovic attacks out of the peloton to take 9th and 3 points, which moves him up to 25. Peloton now 4’49 down. Leemreize has a virtual GC lead over 2 minutes. Alarcon having been dropped over the top is still trying to rejoin the other 6.
Dyrnes beats Keizer to win the second sprint point. He is now ahead of Leemreize on the GC which could matter if the break stays away with enough time. But on the descent the peloton have closed the gap to 3’39 with JEWA-TIROL contributing for the first time. Alarcon has been unable to rejoin, he lost ground on the descent and is now 1’05 behind.
Almost immediately after the sprint point the final climb begins and Ciccone attacks, Leemreize and Chevrier follow.14k to go.
With the peloton on the final climb and the chase softening the lead is back to 3’50, Paret-Peintre launches the first GC attack. Up front Ablenado is trying to work his way back to the three attackers with Keizer and Dyrnes on his wheel. The gap is 20 seconds.
With just under 10k to go the 6 at the front come back together. APP is at 2’38 and the peloton at 2’57. Jacobsen, Lunke’s last helper is setting the tempo. Peloton down to 70.
9k for the peloton, Jacobsen has brough back Paret-Peintre and also Alarcon. The remaining 6 breakaway riders are 2 minutes ahead. The peloton is down to 47, the Yellow jersey was well placed but appears to have cracked and is now near the back of the group. Chiarello 2nd wheel, Berhane behind him.
Jacobsen cracks and Chiarello and Berhane immediately attack. Lunke is forced to chase, the gap is 21 seconds. Behind Lunke it is Fabbro, Munoz, Garby, and Pavlic.
Chiarello and Berhane reach the breakaway survivors although Berhane looks the stronger of the two. They already have 59 seconds on the Lunke group. Goos is leading the next group on the road which has 36 riders including the race leader.
5.2k for the two leaders. They are now 46 seconds clear of a 34-rider chase group which includes all the remaining GC contenders including Lunke and the breakaway remnants. Ablenado is leading that group working for Munoz now. Mayer has been dropped and his time as the race leader is definitely over.
3.7k to go, Berhane attacks Chiarello. Chase group is 20 strong and 1 minute back, but it has been splitting and reforming.
Chiarello cracks. Berhane has a 15 second gap on him and 1’10 on the next group, he is now the virtual race leader. 2.9k to ride. The climb flattens out towards the top.
2.5k to go the chase group is down to 11 but they have closed the gap to 41 seconds to Chiarello and 1’01 to Berhane. Iturria and Lunke on the front. Other riders in the group are Munoz, Garby, Fabbro, Ablenado, Potocki, O'Connor, Elosegui, Paret-Peintre, and Goos.
Iturria drags the chase group back to within 16 seconds of Chiarello and Lunke attacks with 1.3k to go. Berhane looks like he will win the stage as he has another 40 seconds but the GC lead is still in play.
Berhane wins stage 4 with no energy to celebrate but clear road behind. Lunke has been unable to bridge up to Chiarello but is limiting the damage.
With the finish line in site Lunke still trying to catch Chiarello. He could do with the bonus seconds for 2nd as well as he only has 1’02 on Berhane.
Chiarello holds on for 2nd. Lunke will remain ahead of him on GC but needs to limit his losses to 50 seconds to stay ahead of Berhane. Behind Iturria , Elosegui, and Goos have gapped the other chasers.
The time gap is 55 seconds. Berhane is the new race leader by 4 seconds.
1’10 down Iturria edges Elosegui for 4th, Iturria will be fourth on GC while Elosegui takes over the best young riders jersey. Goos is 6th.
Paret-Peintre, Potocki and Fabbro take 7th to 9th.
Munoz, 10th, Garby, 11th and O'Connor, 12th are the next 3 home. Ablenado is the best of the break in 13th.
Altanzul hangs on to the points lead. JEWA-Tirol are the new team’s competition leaders.
Volta a Catalunya 
