The real mountain has begin !

Fourth stage of the Vuelta, 103km from Puntarenas to Grecia and first big mountain stage.

By Jean-Michel Lachance & David Drouin

Jean-Michel: Last night, I warned the guys. The real mountain begins tomorrow! Two years ago, I achieved my best performance in a mountain stage finishing in fourth in a similar stage finishing with the same climb. But for that to happen, I had to be in a breakaway with a huge gap before the hill ! The stage was 170km long and a big group broke away at the beginning. I missed it, but chase with 2 others to make junction at the 50km mark and our group had 10min before the big climb. Juan Carlos Rojas, who was in the peloton managed to reduced that 10min gap. I managed a 4th place, winning the sprint of my group, but had I did'nt go in that break, I would have been way further back. 

Well, today did't disappoint. The heat was more manageable than the previous days and our tactic was simple. The stage had 40km of flat at the beginning where no breakaways was going to go away in my opinion. David was 3rd on the u23 classification and a fairly good climber, we decided to have the team position him as best as they could before the climb. David did good finishing in 38th 16min back:

David: The first kilometers were fast and nervous. I did try an attack in the first hill, but that did'nt work out. Afterward, I tried to follow the leading group as long as possible. I was not able to follow the pace of the costa rican climbers (35km/h in 7-8% grade). I got myself in a little group of 7 and finished in 38th while keeping some strength for the next stages. My teammates all finished in the numerous groups after me, but unfortunately Emile arrived outside time limite. I wanted to thank him for helping me on stage 2. Tomorrow is a hard uphill time trial, but I'll give 100% as usual! 

{youtube}Ug1IhKKwIPA{/youtube}