It was Team Dimension Data who controlled the breakaway for most of the day until other teams decided to join in with the workload, including Mitchelton-Scott, with around 40km to go to draw back the escapees ahead of the final climb.
At three kilometres from the finish line, two Movistar riders set a high pace to lose as many competitors as possible. Some metres later, Alejandro Valverde made a move and took with him first a group of the favourites and then the rest of the reduced pack followed.
Adam Yates bided his time until 1.5kilometres to go when he launched a move and forced more riders to drop off the testing pace.
Conquering 20% sections, Yates had enough left to continue to push on, leading the small surviving group before attacking again up the brutal stopes inside the final 500m, crossing the line ahead of the current world champion to claim his first win of the season. Valverde was on his wheel in the closing moments, but did not have the power to catch him on the line.
Edvald Boasson Hagen loses the overall lead on general classification with Astana’s Ion Izagirre taking over yellow after stage four with Valverde seven seconds behind on GC in second place.
Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana 2019 – stage 4 results (Vila-Real – Alcala-Alcocebre):
| 1 | Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | 4:54:57 |
| 2 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) | ,, |
| 3 | Pello Bilbao (Astana) | +02” |
| 4 | Ion Izagirre (Astana) | ,, |
| 5 | Daniel Martin (UAE Team Emirates) | +04” |
| 6 | Sergio Higuita (Euskadi) | +05” |
| 7 | Jesus Herrada (Cofidis) | +12” |
| 8 | Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida) | +17” |
| 9 | Jack Haig (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 10 | Ben Hermans (Israel Cycling Academy) | +25” |
Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana 2019 – general classification after stage 4:
| 1 | Ion Izagirre (Astana) | 9:23:23 |
| 2 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) | +07” |
| 3 | Pello Bilbao (Astana) | ,, |
| 4 | Daniel Martin (UAE Team Emirates) | +16” |
| 5 | Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida) | +18” |
| 6 | Jesus Herrada (Cofidis) | +29” |
| 7 | Jack Haig (Mitchelton-Scott) | +33” |
| 8 | Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | +34” |
| 9 | Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) | +46” |
| 10 | Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) | +48” |
