Sam Bennett goes early to take a dominating win on stage four of Vuelta a Burgos 2020

The Irish champion took advantage of a crash just before the final kilometre to take victory

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Sam Bennett was unflinching in the final of stage four of the Vuelta a Burgos as he jumped early to get ahead of a crash and take a thrilling win.

Day four was set up as a sprint stage but with an almost entirely uphill final kilometre, making it one for the more versatile power riders.

This was last chance for the sprinters to get anything out of the race and the approach to the finish was a frantic one, with sprinters teams fighting hard to get the front sport through the tight roads of the Spanish countryside.

A crash just before the one kilometre to go banner, as the riders turned onto the climb, caused chaos at the front and sparked Bennett into life.

Bennett (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) took the win ahead of a small group of eight sprinters led in by Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ), who takes his second runners up spot of the race. Bennett's teammate, Remco Evenepoel, keeps his lead in the general classification.

How it happened

The riders started the day in Gumiel de Izán and had a 163km flat stage to look forward to in the Burgos region of Spain, finishing in Roa de Duero.

The early break was made up of six riders, Txomin Juaristi (Fundacion Ciclista Euskadi), Diego Sevilla (Kometa-Xstra Cycling Team), Alejandro Ropero (Kometa-Xstra Cycling Team), Riccardo Verza (Kometa-Xstra Cycling Team), Damiano Cima (Gazprom-Rusvelo) and Willie Smit (Burgos-BH).

The day was kept under control by the sprint teams, with Démare's Groupama-FDJ and Mark Cavendish's Bahrain-McLaren doing the vast majority.

The break never managed more than three minutes and started to break down with around 25km to go.

Eventually, the break's constant attacking led to two riders getting away. Team-mates, Ropero and Sevilla pushed on and held onto a 30 second lead for about 5km before the peloton slowly dragged them back.

Thanks to some tight and twisty roads through villages, the two Kometa riders held out until 12km from the finish, where they were swallowed up by the pack, who were now in colour order.

The tight roads did bring some mistakes too with ninth overall, David De La Cruz (UAE Team Emirates) caught out in a crash along with about seven other riders still a few kilometres outside the 3km cut-off.

The last 2km were filled with roundabouts and sharp 90 degree bends which really stretched out the peloton before heading up to switchbacks up to the finishing town.

With 1km to go, some of the leading riders hit the deck. Michael Mørkøv (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) went down first, which took out Démare's leadout and blocked off other riders, like Cavendish and Matteo Trentin (CCC Team).

The Irish champion capitalised on the crash, launching his attack 900 metres from the line and using the climb to take a superbly powerful win ahead of Démare in second and Giacomo Nizzolo in third (NTT Pro Cycling).

A multiple Grand Tour stage winner, he is no stranger to long distance moves and this move was textbook Bennett.

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There was also no sign of stage two winner, Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) in the top positions.

Bennett's team-mate Evenepoel finished safely in the bunch and still leads the race by 18 seconds over George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma), heading into tomorrow's final mountain stage.

Results

Vuelta a Burgos 2020, stage four: Bodegas Nabal - Roa de Duero (163km)

1. Sam Bennett (Irl) Deceuninck - Quick-Step, in 3-51-19

2. Arnaud Dêmare (Fra) Groupama-FDJ, at 5s

3. Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) NTT Pro Cycling

4. Davide Cimolai (Ita) Israel Start-Up Nation

5. Lionel Taminiaux (Bel) Bingoal-Wallonie Bruxelles

6. Biniam Ghirmay (Eri) Nippo-Delko-Provence

7. Jon Aberasturi (Esp) Caja Rural

8. Martin Laas (Est) Bora-Hansgrohe

9. Alexander Edmondson (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott, all at same time

10. Rick Zabel (Ger) Israel Start-Up Nation, at 8s

General Classification

1. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Deceuninck - Quick-Step, in 15-26-47

2. George Bennett (Nzl) Team Jumbo-Visma, at 18s

3. Mikel Landa (Esp) Bahrain-McLaren, at 32s

4. Esteban Chaves (Col) Mitchelton-Scott, at 35s

5. João Almeida (Por) Deceuninck - Quick-Step, at 45s

6. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Team Ineos, at 52s

7. Ben Hermans (Bel) Israel Start-Up Nation, at 1-02m

8. Fabio Aru (Ita) UAE Team Emirates, at 1-13m

9. David De La Cruz (Esp) UAE Team Emirates, at 1-42

10. Mikel Nieve (Esp) Mitchelton-Scott, at 1-45m

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Tim Bonville-Ginn

Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!


I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.


It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.


After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.


When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.


My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.