Valverde secures narrow victory to claim ninth Vuelta a España stage success

Spain's Alejandro Valverde claimed victory on stage four of the Vuelta a España ©Getty Images

Movistar’s Alejandro Valverde claimed his ninth Vuelta a España stage victory on home soil as he powered to a closely-fought success during stage four from Estepona to Vejer de la Frontera today.

The Spaniard finished the 210 kilometres course in a time of 5 hours 07min 30sec to edge Tinkoff-Saxo’s Peter Sagan, who ended a barren Grand Tour winning run by sprinting to victory on yesterday’s third stage.

Valverde, winner of the the overall event in 2009, came into his home race off the back of third place at this year's Tour de France, and held off the strong challenge of Slovakia's Sagan, as well as a pack of other riders on the uphill finish, including fellow Spaniard Daniel Moreno of the Katusha team and Team Sky’s Nicolas Roche of Ireland.

The 35-year-old was confident he could take victory, boosting his chances of another overall triumph, while denying Sagan a second consecutive stage win.

“Today my team stayed back because we have a long race ahead and we need to keep something back,” Valverde told Eurosport.

“We sat on with Katusha - we both rode very well and very tactically - and then for the last 200 metres I flew.

“I knew Sagan was there on my wheel - I kept on getting flashes of his hair - but I knew I was the strongest and it was going to be my victory today.”

Stage four provided a dramatic finale as Alejandro Valverde held off the challenge of stage three winner Peter Sagan to claim victory — Stage four of Vuelta a España provided a dramatic finale as Spain's Alejandro Valverde held off the challenge of yesterday's winner, Slovakia's Peter Sagan, to claim victory ©Getty Images

The majority of the stage was flat, making for a tense finale as a number of the chasing pack attacked towards the end, with the likes of Tour de France winner Chris Froome of Team Sky and current race leader, Colombian Esteban Chaves of the Orica-GreenEdge outfit, choosing to hold back.

Spain’s Samuel Sanchez, gold medallist at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, attacked earlier on along with Roche but neither were able to hold out to the end as both faded before the finish line.

Chaves managed to retain the red jersey and he now has an advantage of five seconds over The Netherlands’ Tom Dumoulin, who rides for the Giant-Alpecin team, while Roche is a further seven seconds back in third.

The result moves Valverde up to fourth, 25 seconds adrift of Chaves, with race favourites Froome, who is poised in ninth place with a 10 second lead over Astana’s Italian rider Fabio Aru, and Movistar’s Nairo Quintana remaining in the top 10 thanks to their stage four performances.

Valverde’s victory was his seventh of the season so far and ensures he remains in contention for the red jersey.

This year’s Vuelta, the 70th edition of the race, is due continue tomorrow with stage five, a largely-flat 167km route from Rota to Alcalá de Guadaíra.