Stage 4

The road

At the start

Matthews in red, and a 14% wall

Michael Matthews took the stage and the red jersey in Arcos while Alejandro Valverde crashed his lead away twenty kilometres from the line and finished with a sore back. Four seconds separate Matthews from Nairo Quintana, fifteen cover the first four. Today crosses forty-degree country to Córdoba, with the Alto del Catorce Por Ciento — the climb named after its own gradient — 26km out.

How it was won

1. 1144 km to go

   Forty degrees on the road north

   Aramendia, Jõeäär, Turgot and Engoulvent slip away in oven-like heat and build five minutes while the peloton thinks about nothing but bottles.

2. 226 km to go

   Fourteen per cent

   The climb named after its own gradient shreds the sprinters — Sagan, Debusschere and Hutarovich all sliding backwards — while Sky and Movistar line it out at the front and Contador dances on the pedals, testing his knee.

3. 322 km to go

   Valverde's mysterious dig

   Anacona and Adam Yates jump over the top, Sicard joins them — and so does Valverde. Twenty seconds, with sixty kilometres to Córdoba and no obvious plan; the peloton reels it in.

4. 4At the line

   Degenkolb in Córdoba

   Hansen tries to spoil it one more time and is caught. In the last 200 metres the German unleashes everything and wins by several bike lengths, Reynés second, Matthews third and still in red.

The result