Stage 4

The road

At the start

The first summit finish

Alejandro Valverde took the Arrate by millimetres and the red jersey off his own team-mate; behind him Rodríguez, Froome and Contador are covered by five seconds, which is a fair summary of the next fortnight. Today is the hardest day yet — out of the Basque Country over the Orduña, through the Rioja vineyards, and thirteen kilometres up to the ski station at Valdezcaray.

How it was won

1. 1121 km to go

   Five men, thirteen minutes

   Tony Martin, Simon Clarke, Assan Bazayev, Jesús Rosendo and Luis Ángel Maté are handed the day, and the peloton lets the gap balloon to thirteen minutes while it thinks about the first-category haul to Valdezcaray.

2. 230 km to go

   Sky do not wait

   Crosswinds, and Sky at the front lining the race out — and in the middle of it Alejandro Valverde, the red jersey, goes down. Intxausti pleads with them. Sky ride on. The peloton shatters into four echelons and the leader of the Vuelta spends the next thirty kilometres scavenging from group to group.

3. 313 km to go

   Four minutes at the foot

   Martin and Clarke have dropped Bazayev and start the thirteen-kilometre climb with four minutes, and they ride the shallow upper slopes with the discipline of men who have done the arithmetic.

4. 46 km to go

   Contador probes

   On the steepest section Navarro launches his leader and Contador pulls Froome and Nicolas Roche clear of the favourites. He accelerates again and still cannot lose the Briton; Katusha haul them back three kilometres later. Igor Antón, further down, loses thirty seconds and his Vuelta.

5. 5At the line

   Clarke refuses the invitation

   Martin waves Clarke through to lead out from distance and the Australian, with perfect nerve, declines — marshals him to the front instead, then beats him with room to spare for the first win of his career. Behind, Rodríguez takes the red jersey and Valverde arrives with his Vuelta rearranged.

The result