Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) climbed to a brilliant solo victory on stage four of the Volta a Catalunya on Thursday thereby clinching a narrow oveall lead on his key rivals for the overall victory.
The 25-year-old, who won the Tour of Colombia last month, sprung out of the day’s final breakaway to snatch the leader’s jersey from Thomas de Gendt, who led after clinching a solo breakaway victory on day one.
“My legs felt good,” said Lopez afterwards. “It gives me a lot of confidence, we started the season very well in Colombia but then in Paris-Nice missed out on a great victory.”
A handful of riders sit just a few seconds behind Lopez in the overall as Adam Yates (Mitcheton-Scott), Egan Bernal (Team Sky) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar), and Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) can all take the victory Sunday in Barcelona.
“We’re not going to think too much about that,” added Lopez. “We’ll see on the last day if I can defend this jersey.”
Lopez, who got the nickname ‘Superman’ after fighting off a knife attack at 16, edged out Bora-Hansgrohe’s Gregor Muhlberger and Movistar’s Marc Soler at the end of a 150.3-kilometre stage that began in Llanars and finished in La Molina.
Volta a Catalunya 2019 – stage 4 results (Llanars – La Molina):
| 1 | Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) | 4:02:07 |
| 2 | Gregor Mühlberger (Bora-hansgrohe) | +16” |
| 3 | Marc Soler (Movistar) | ,, |
| 4 | Egan Bernal (Team Sky) | ,, |
| 5 | Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 6 | Nairo Quintana (Movistar) | +19” |
| 7 | Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) | ,, |
| 8 | Guillaume Martin (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) | +32” |
| 9 | Michael Woods (EF Education First) | +41” |
| 10 | Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe) | +42” |
Volta a Catalunya 2019 – general classification after stage 4:
| 1 | Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) | 17:31:05 |
| 2 | Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | +14” |
| 3 | Egan Bernal (Team Sky) | +17” |
| 4 | Nairo Quintana (Movistar) | +25” |
| 5 | Daniel Martin (UAE Team Emirates) | +46” |
| 6 | Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) | +56” |
| 7 | Michael Woods (EF Education First) | +01’42” |
| 8 | Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) | +01’44” |
| 9 | Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe) | +02’27” |
| 10 | Marc Soler (Movistar) | +02’36” |
