Daniel Martínez struck a coup of authority by winning stage 4 in the Vuelta al País Vasco 2022

The Colombian cyclist, Daniel Martínez of Ineos Grenadiers, has struck a great blow of authority winning stage 4 that was played between Vitoria-Gasteiz and Zamudio in 185.6 kilometers of route. During the day there was an escape of several runners who were adding the points of the mountain and the intermediate sprints, also seeking to secure those classifications for the end.

Ineos Grenadiers, Jumbo Visma and the Quick Step Alpha Vinil put up the braids to cut the time with the fugue that was diluted during the course thanks to the hard pace of competition that the teams most interested in taking the day's victory from behind.

Within the group of favorites, the two best Colombians in the overall standings traveled well sheltered: Rigoberto Urán and Daniel Martínez, who at the end of the race had to be attentive to the cuts that occurred after overcoming Victor Lafay del Cofidis, who endured until 9 km to the end.

Remco Evenepoel and world champion Julian Alaphilippe, both of the Quick Step Alpha Vinil, hoped to be able to carry out the same strategy as two days ago in which Remco threw his teammate in the last meters to win.

What they didn't expect was that Daniel Martínez would come out early, with almost 150 meters to go, which made the other rivals react a little late.

The Cundinamarquis adds another second victory to his record so far in the 2022 season after he won the gold medal at the national time trial in Colombia in February. Although it should also be mentioned that his form during these first months has been very high, which allowed him a few weeks ago to face a great benchmark such as Primoz Roglic from Jumbo Visma during the last Paris Nice where he finally finished in the 3rd place of the overall standings.

These were the words of the Colombian runner after beating two-time world champion Julian Alaphilippe on the finish line:

Whoever was the main squire in Egan Bernal's victory at the Giro d'Italia 2021, now gets even more into the dispute for the victory of the 61st edition of the Vuelta al País Basque by reaching the day's bonus 10 seconds for the general standings, which now places him in third position climbing up to 5 places in the standings lack of 2 stages to go.

Meanwhile Rigoberto Urán of EF Education EasyPost, also rose one place in the general standings, moving to 12th place at 40 seconds behind Roglic. The Antioquian managed to keep up with the main leaders of the competition, although there were times when he was seen to have a hard time.

Even so, he entered the finish line with his main rivals and it is expected that in the following stages he will be able to show even greater conditions to get into the top 10 of the Basque competition that ends next Saturday with a tough mountain stage.

The rest of the Colombians fulfilled their duties as gregarios satisfactorily and are now positioned like this in the general standings after stage 4: Sebastián Henao (Astana) is 63° to 15′33″, followed by Diego Camargo (EF) in 103rd to 27′:45″, then Sergio Higuita (Bora) is 119th to more than 30 minutes like Daniel Méndez (Kern) Pharma) who is 131st.

KEEP READING: