Vuelta a España Stage 4: Pogačar Crushes Everybody and Kills Race For Red with 50K Mountain Solo

Tadej Pogačar isn’t waiting around to win the Vuelta a España. The Slovenian superstar all-but won La Vuelta on day 4 of the race on Tuesday.

Pogi attacked with 50km to go of Tuesday’s explosive mountain stage and blazed like a red-suited rocket across the roof of Andorra to take a 3:21 lead on GC.

It’s a margin that could be insurmountable.

But don’t worry, the Vuelta ain’t totally over at stage 4.

The race for the GC podium lit up on Tuesday.

Twenty-year-old Belgian phenom Jarno Widar (Lotto) won a sprint of six classification hopefuls for second on the stage.

Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM), Oscar Onley (Netcompany Ineos), and Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) were next to the line.

Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was last in the sprint but did enough to move to second on GC, 3:21 behind Pogačar. Enric Mas (Movistar) is third at 3:32.

The result leaves nine riders separated by less than two minutes, leaving the Vuelta a España poised for a tight podium battle.

Full circle in Andorra for Pogačar

Pogačar rolled out his characteristic “attack is the best form of defense” strategy Tuesday.

He made his 50km attack when he found himself isolated on the second of four high-altitude climbs to prove he’s good enough on his own.

“I knew I didn’t want to be isolated with all the GC rivals because they would all try against me,” Pogačar said of his winning move. “I tried an attack on the climb and hoped I could survive to the finish; I did it.

“It was pretty tough, but it was a beautiful day out there,” he said.

Pogačar now heads into a series of hilly transitional stages looking likely to wear the red jersey wire-to-wire.

He’s been untouchable since his split-second time trial win Saturday in Monaco.

And this 129th win of Pogačar’s pro career might stand out for the Slovenian GOAT.

He won his very first grand tour stage on these same roads at the 2019 Vuelta a España and has won a further 36 since.

“Never did I think then that I’d be the rider I am now,” Pogačar said when asked about his first grand tour win, seven years ago.

“I have such beautiful memories from the first time in Andorra. It’s one of my favorite memories from my career.”

And that’s not all — Tuesday was the longest solo grand tour win of Pogačar’s career, some 7km longer than his solo raid across the Tourmalet this July at the Tour de France.

Peloton hits home roads

Stage 4 took the Vuelta’s penchant for short and spicy stages and turned it up to 12.

The 105km stage across the roof of Andorra  started with a 23km climb and was a procession of ascents and descents from there.

The four categorized climbs on the course totaled more than 3,000m of vert, making for a seriously mean climbing per kilometer ratio.

Just to make things worse, more than 15km of the race was above the 2,000m altitude mark that can cause misery for aerobic performance.

For dozens of riders, this was a “home” stage. Andorra is one of the most popular home-away-from-homes for pros from across the world.

Ironically, Pogačar lives in Monaco. That didn’t stop him from making himself feel very comfortable on Tuesday.

Decathlon pokes the bear

Decathlon CMA CGM took it to the bunch from early in the stage Tuesday in the quest to mark out Gall as best-of-the-rest, or maybe even take it to Pogačar.

To start with, it worked.

Pogačar was left with only two teammates after the first 40km of racing, and the podium contenders were looking ragged.

But it seems like Pogi didn’t like Decathlon’s audacity.

He took the race into his own sweaty mitts.

Pogačar blasted from the remnants of the Decathlon mountain train at 50km to go on the Cat. 1 Collada de Beixalls and made the move that stitched himself firmly into the rojo skinsuit.

The race for the GC podium begins

Gall clung on to Pogačar’s wheel for a few hundred meters but the outcome was inevitable. The Austrian slid off the wheel to leave Pogačar to crest the climb with a 90-second margin, less than 5km after his attack.

Gall dropped into a 17-rider group after he was gapped.

Decathlon wasn’t deterred after Pogačar rode away.

The team continued piling on in a large chase group before Gall attacked on the penultimate climb with Onley on his wheel.

Kuss, Roglič, and Mas made their way across ahead of the summit to set up a group of 5.

Widar, Richard Carapaz, Gregor Muhlberger and Mattias Skjelmose bridged across to them with 10km to go to set up a gallop over the short final climb and the final sprint for the line.

Vuelta a España stage 4 results