Stage 4

The road

At the start

The first summit finish, at Alfaguara

Michał Kwiatkowski keeps red with Valverde at fourteen seconds and Wilco Kelderman at twenty-five. Today is the first real mountain day: 161 kilometres from Vélez-Málaga over the Puerto de la Cabra, through Granada, and up the long, relentless drag to the Sierra de la Alfaguara — a climb shallow enough to look harmless and long enough to punish anybody who treats it that way.

How it was won

1. 161 km to go

   King rides for the jersey

   Ben King, best-placed of the escapees, has an eight-minute buffer at the foot of the final climb and a fighting chance of red.

2. 24 km to go

   Yates outlines his intentions

   Four kilometres from the summit of Alfaguara, Simon Yates lays down a sharp acceleration; only Buchmann can follow as Valverde thinks better of it.

3. 3At the line

   King wins the mountain duel

   Up ahead, Ben King holds off the reluctant Stalnov and a charging Rolland to win atop the Sierra de la Alfaguara.

The result