17 Feb 2018

Poels slips to third at Ruta del Sol

Related riders

Wout Poels

Wout Poels slipped to third overall after a gruelling cobbled finish to stage four of the Ruta del Sol saw Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) victorious.

Wellens and Mikel Landa (Movistar) duelled on the final climb in Alcalá de los Gazules, with the Belgian rider edging Landa into second, leaving Poels fourth, now 11 seconds back on GC.

The result leaves Poels this overall ahead of Sunday’s individual time trial, with Landa second, five seconds adrift of Wellens.

Chris Froome was in contention with the lead group until he punctured within the final five kilometres and he was forced to battle back through the race convoy, finishing 1’21” behind Wellens.

Earlier, a break of 13 riders took the early advantage on the undulating stage, but following the challenging Puerto del Boyar climb, the Movistar-led peloton pulled the plug on the break to bring everything back together.

Almost immediately Movistar duo Andrey Amador and Hector Carretero countered, and they were joined by Sep Vanmarcke (EF Education First–Drapac p/b Cannondale) who was the sole survivor from the original break.

The trio were able to build a gap, but Carretero was distanced with 40km to go, leaving his teammate Amador and Vanmarcke to go close to sealing an unlikely victory until they were caught as they began the final ascent into Alcalá de los Gazules, which led to the GC battle to the line.

Stage four result:
1. Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) 4:26:23
2. Mikel Landa (Movistar) +5"
3. Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) +12"
4. Wout Poels (Team Sky) +13"
5. Floris De Tier (LottoNL-Jumbo) s.t.

Overall classification:
1. Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) 17:24:25
2. Mikel Landa (Movistar) +7"
3. Wout Poels (Team Sky) +11"
4. Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) +14"
5. Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) +20"