Jonas Vingegaard again edged Mikel Landa to take a second straight stage within the Tour of the Basque Country and tighten his grip on first place.
Vingegaard had gained the day gone by to take the general lead with Landa ending second to leap to second general.
On Thursday’s stage 4, a hilly 175.7km circuit beginning and ending in Santurzi, within the dockside suburbs of Bilbao, Vingegaard attacked uphill 20km from the end. Landa rapidly gave chase and caught the Dane. “
“I knew I had to get on Vingegaard’s wheel,” mentioned the Spaniard. “Then it was basically all I could do to hold onto him.”
With the pack gradual to react as riders waited for members of different groups to expend the power the leaders constructed a niche of 30 seconds by the height. The pursuers have been unable to make up a lot time on the slim, snaking descent towards the end. The main pair had simply sufficient of a cushion to play cat and mouse over the ultimate kilometre.
As the pack surged nearer, Vingegaard, led into the ultimate nook and was ready to management the road as he surged to the end.
Vingegaard picked up a three-second bonus through the stage and gained one other 4 seconds on Landa with the winner’s bonus, to increase his lead over the Spaniard to 12 seconds. David Gaudu remained third however trails Vingegaard by 31 seconds with two phases to go.
LAST KILOMETER WAS 🔥
Es un último kilómetro que hay que recordar, de nada 😉
4⃣. etaparen azkeneko kilometroa 👇#itzulia2023 pic.twitter.com/L3p0ukZqgk
— Itzulia Basque Country (@ehitzulia) April 6, 2023
