Stage 4 Predictions & Betting tips - Vuelta - Spanish tour

Prediction published on 19/08/2024, 14:03  by Matthew Newman | Modified on 19/08/2024 at 14:08

Stage 4 of La Vuelta 2024 heads to the mountains for the first time. These are not the hardest climbs that they will face over the tour but they are the first tests for the peloton to get over. After a couple of days of sprinters featuring, it's the climbers whom we look to for our prediction.

Perhaps it is not a day for the main players to show too much of their hand so this could be a stage for an escape to break away. The key to Stage 4 is the final climb, a Category 1 which has a 3km section at a brutal 13%.

That 13% sectional immediately means that Colombian riders are front and centre in our thinking. Nairo Quintana is not the rider he was but he was the only one to give a race to Tadej Pogačar on Stage 15 of the Giro earlier in the year to suggest he still has a stage in the legs. 

Quintana rides for the Spanish team Movistar who could be equally active with another Colombian, Einer Rubio. He was 7th in the overall classification at the Giro so perhaps he will be slightly more marked than his teammate. 

Another excellent climber is Aleksandr Vlasov of Bora-Hansgrohe. He was third behind Primož Roglič, the red-hot favourite for this race in a Dauphine stage in June, just 11 seconds back. He had a poor Tour de France but had eight top-10 finishes in La Vuelta stages in 2023.

An interesting one is Canadian Michael Woods. He has a pair of stage wins in La Vuelta in his career as well as a mountain top finish stage success in the 2023 Tour de France. He is 37 now so he will not be feared by the main contenders which could allow him to slip away.