From Chachagua to Liberia, stage 4 of the Vuelta presented an interesting course. Flat on paper, the stage ended up to be a real roller coaster for the first half. Jean-Michel bounced back from his tourista the day before to win the stage for team 1% for the Planet !
Race description:
157km - medium mountain - (2465m)
Race map:
Chachagua - Liberia
How it unfold:
Quickly into the stage, the Coopenae Movista team was very active lauching attacks after attacks. GC riders took the attacks seriously and followed the moves.
Gavriel Epstein: "Today's stage turned out to be very difficult. No long climbs but tons of short ones add up and it did, to almost 7500 feet of climbing."
Jean-Michel Lachance: "After 20km to go, I see GC guys attacking and I figured it was a important move to marked and I jumped hard to bridge across. It was pretty hard only to follow the group in the rolling hills of the start as we quickly gain 10min on the main peloton. With JPS team present in big numbers, they did the most work in the group and I was able to save my legs as much as I could in the group (16 riders). With 9km to go, we catch Marconi Duran from Coopenae who rode very strong throughout the stage forcing JPS to chase. From that moment, all cards played in my favor as I was the fastest rider in the group. I stayed calm until the finish and let the others started the sprint and passed them just in time to raise my arms"
Jean-Michel win puts him now in first place of the Regularidad classification ahead of Juan Carlos Rojas.
Results: full results - video report
Stage 4, 157 km - avg speed 39,5km/h,
1- Jean-Michel Lachance, 1% for the Planet, 3h 58m 32
2- Fabricio Quiros, BCR Pizza Hut, même temps
3- Juan Rojas, JPS Giant, même temps
26 - Gavriel Epstein, 1% for the PLanet +9m 58
35- Ryan Roth, 1% for the Planet +9m 58
37- Anton Varabei, 1% for the Planet +9m 58
51- Julien Gagné, 1% for the Planet, à 9m 58
70- Étienne Samson, 1% for the Planet, à 37m 52
General classification
1- Juan Rojas, JPS Giant, 14h 00m 20
2- Elias Vega, JPS Giant, + 1m 36
3- Juan Mata, Agricenter, + 1m 58
24- Julien Gagné, 1% for the Planet, + 13m 48
35- Jean-Michel Lachance, 1% for the Planet, + 15m 41
43- Anton Varabei, 1% for the Planet +18m 03
45- Ryan Roth, 1% for the Planet + 20m 18
71- Étienne Samson, 1% for the Planet, + 1h 21m 08
Regularidad
1 - Jean-Michel Lachance - For the Planet - 53pts
2 - Juan Rojas - JPS Giant - 41pts
3 - Fabricio Quiros - BCR Pizza Hut - 36pts
4 - Evgeny Kovalev - RusVelo - 35pts
5 - Elias Vega - JPS Giant - 35pts
6 - Anton Varabei - For the Planet - 27 pts
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Photo credit: Rafael Pacheco - Aldia.cr (photo 1) - Coopena Movistar cycling team (photo2 et 3)
Altimeteria and map: Garmin
