Stage 4 of the Ruta del Sol would be a 21km individual time trial which Tejay Van Garderen (BMC Racing) would win ahead of Wilco Kelderman (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Jerome Coppel (IAM Cycling).
Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka did not necessarily have a specialist who could contend for the victory today but Kanstantsin Siutsou and Omar Fraile definitely gave the course a good crack, hoping to limit their time loss ahead of tomorrow’s all important Mountaintop finish stage.
Unfortunately, Siutsou, who was looking to be on a really good run, hit the deck during his time trial effort and would lose a good chunk of time but still managed to be our highest placed finisher. Our Belorussian stopped the clock in a time of 28’38”. Fraile was a bit further back, crossing the line with a time of 29’01”. The rest of our African Team riders all got around the course safely. As Van Garderen posted a super quick time of 27’05”, this leaves our African Team riders all over a minute off the race lead.
Tomorrow’s final stage is a mountainous 164km, that includes 5 categorised climbs. The final climb being a cat 1 climb to the summit finish in Penas Blancas. Our African Team riders will look to take advantage of the time between themselves and the overall race lead to mount a real challenge for the stage victory.
Alex Sans Vega – Sport Director
