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Tadej Pogacar arrived in red, lit the fuse on the climbs and turned stage four of the Vuelta a España into a private exhibition on Tuesday, powering away with almost 50km remaining to win alone in Andorra la Vella.
The Slovenian, bidding to complete his Grand Tour collection by claiming the Vuelta for the first time, attacked on the road to the second climb and quickly reduced a high-altitude battle into a one-man procession.
He began the final ascent with a lead of three minutes and 12 seconds and cruised over the last mountain pass before finishing in 2hr 40min 35sec. Jarno Widar won the sprint for second, 2min 39sec off the pace, with Felix Gall third.
Seven years after his only previous appearance in the Spanish race, Pogacar underlined why he started as the overwhelming favourite having recently claimed a fifth Tour de France title.
The UAE Team Emirates rider now leads the general classification by 3min 21sec over compatriot Primoz Roglic of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, with Spain’s Enric Mas of Movistar 11 seconds further back.
Pogacar began patiently, sitting in the third peloton for much of the opening climb, around 32sec behind the group setting the pace. The early attackers were reeled in on the descent from the first mountain pass, where Lorenzo Fortunato, of XDS Astana, crossed the summit of the Port d’Envalira first to collect maximum mountain points.
Then came the coup de grace.
With 50km to race, Pogacar surged clear uphill in familiar style. By the time he crossed the summit of the Collada de Beixalis, he had a lead of 1min 30sec over a chasing group including Mas, Roglic, Gall, Richard Carapaz and Oscar Onley.
It was shaping up as Pogacar’s longest solo attack for stage victory in a Grand Tour. He had already produced long-range masterpieces this year at the Tour de France, where he attacked on the Col du Tourmalet and rode the final 43km alone, and in previous Grand Tours including the 2019 Vuelta and the 2024 Giro d’Italia.
On Tuesday, his pace was brutal and every climb saw the gap grow. With Embret Svestad-Bardseng pulling the chasing group, Pogacar stretched his advantage to nearly three minutes on the road to the later climbs.
“It’s super good because now I can be calm and confident for the next days,” said Pogacar. “We just keep going day by day and focus on each day after this, because it will be a little bit less stressful for sure.
“[I didn’t] want to be also isolated against all the GC riders because they would all play against me – I tried with an attack on the climb and I just hoped that I could survive until the finish line. I saw that I could open the gap and I did it and it was pretty tough but a beautiful day out there.”
