Vuelta a Burgos 2023 – Stage 4 [FULL STAGE]

August 18, 2023

Vuelta a Burgos 2023 🇪🇸 – Stage 4 – Santa Gadea del Cid – Pradoluengo (Acebel-Vizcarra) : 157 km

Falling just before the Vuelta a España, this five-day stage race often serves as the ideal warm up event for those riders eyeing up a top result at the Spanish Grand Tour. With most of the Vuelta’s GC favourites on the startline, it’s also a great chance for onlookers to gauge each rider’s form and see who’s hot, and who’s not. This year, the race will host Primož Roglič’s return to racing ahead of the Vuelta. The format of the race has stayed largely the same since its inception in 1946, with each edition featuring five gruelling stages in and around the mountainous Burgos province of northern Spain. Over the past few years the race has typically started with a rolling stage around the city of Burgos, the capital city of the eponymously named province. The race has then tended to head north to the mountains that straddle the Burgos-Cantabria border for a mid-race summit finish, often on top of the monstrously steep Picón Blanco – an 8.5km-long climb with an average gradient of 9% and several ramps teetering on 20%. The organisers don’t just stop there with the climbing, after shuffling the GC on the Picón Blanco halfway through the race the organisers then throw in the classic summit finish to Lagunas de Neila on the final day to draw everything to a close. This particular climb has played host to the finale of the Vuelta a Burgos every year since 2015. At 11km in length, with an average gradient of 6% and ramps of 17% in the final 4km, it’s clear to see why the GC is often decided on this mountain.

Oier Lazkano (Movistar) won stage 4 of the Vuelta a Burgos after he overpowered Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) on the uphill finale in Pradoluengo. The Spanish champion was part of a nine-man move that escaped early in the stage and fought out the victory on the category 3 climb to the line.

Primoz Roglic finished safely in the main peloton to retain his commanding overall lead ahead of Saturday’s finale at Lagunas de Neila, and his Jumbo-Visma team policed the day’s break to ensure dangerman Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) – 9th on the stage – wasn’t given too much leeway.

Lazkano showed his strength by closing down a late attack from Joan Bou (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and then surging to the front. Buitrago was the only rider who could follow Lazkano’s acceleration, but he was unable to summon up the speed to come around the strongman in the closing metres. Raul Garcia Pierna (Kern Pharma) took third place, three seconds behind Lazkano.

The Basque’s teammate Ivan Garcia Cortina won the sprint for 10th place, 58 seconds later, and Lazkano explained afterwards that his Movistar squad had prepared for every eventuality on Friday’s stage.

“Today we had the order from team to try to get in the break, but we also had Garcia in the bunch in case it came down to a sprint,” said Lazkano.

The 23-year-old has enjoyed a breakout season, capped by second place at Dwars door Vlaanderen, victory at Boucles de la Mayenne and, of course, the Spanish road title. Despite the presence of climbers of the calibre of Buitrago and Vine in the break of the day, Lazkano was compelled to bide his time for the 2km haul to the line due to the headwind on the long drag towards the final, category 3 climb.

“For the last 40 or 50km, we had a headwind, so we had to wait for the climb to attack, but we always had two or three minutes on the bunch,” said Lazkano, who is in line to start his second Vuelta a España next week. “It’s nice to win in Spain with the national champion’s jersey, and so close to home as well.”

Lazkano joined Vine, Buitrago, Matteo Fabbro (Bora-Hansgrohe), Jonathan Klever Caicedo (EF Education-EasyPost), Harold Martín López (Astana-Qazaqstan), Raúl García Pierna (Kern Pharma), Joan Bou (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Gianluca Brambilla (Q36.5) in the day’s early break, which formed with 150km still to race.

Vine, who impressed on stage 3 until a crash halted his progress, began the day 4:46 off Roglic’s overall lead, which meant that Jumbo-Visma were reluctant to offer the escapees too much latitude, though as the afternoon wore on, it became clear that they would have the chance to contest stage victory.

Brambilla was the first of the break to attack, launching a rasping acceleration with 1.3km to go that was pegged back by Buitrago. Garcia Pierna, already aggressive on Thursday, kicked beneath the flamme rouge before Bou launched his effort with 500m to go.

Lazkano sensed his moment and responded, bringing Buitrago with him. The Colombian might have been slightly favoured on a finale such as this, but Lazkano’s strength won the day.

Behind, Attila Valter brought the peloton to within a minute of the break on the final climb, while Roglic avoided a crash in the finale to finish safely in the peloton and retain his overall lead. He has a buffer of 33 seconds on Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) and 38 on Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) ahead of Saturday’s finale at Lagunas de Neila.

“It was hot, real summer, and also windy today. But have a strong team and the guys did a really good job so everything was under control,” Roglic said.

“Tomorrow will be the hard one with the finish uphill. Of course, it’s super nice, with a lot of people on the road, a lot of support. I’m definitely looking forward to tomorrow.”

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