Adam Yates flies to stage win at Gran Camiño and takes command of GC

Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) won stage 4 of O Gran Gran Camiño on the summit finish of Alto Cabeza de Meda after an attack from 3.8 kilometres out.

Jørgen Nordhagen (Visma | Lease a Bike) battled well to take 2nd on the stage at 0:46 behind Yates, and the only rider within a minute of the stage winner. Meanwhile Alessandro Pinarello enjoyed a strong day in the yellow jersey to take 3rd on the stage at 1:04.

Yates' performance puts him in a strong position in the GC with one stage remaining. Nordhagen remains in 2nd overall, while Pinarello slips to 3rd.

Stage 4 kicked off with a breakaway quickly establishing ground over the peloton, and in it were a mix of Spaniard and Portuguese riders who wished to try their luck at the breakaway bingo. Samuel Fernandez, Martín Rey, Xabier Isasa, Andoni López de Abetxuko, Noah Campos, Jose Bicho, Lucas Lopes, Rúben Rodrigues, and Diogo Pinto had a 3:15 lead over the peloton, which NSN Cycling controlled with race leader Pinarello.

52 kilometres out from the line, the Caja Rural rider, Samuel Fernandez, attacked from the breakaway and rapidly built up an advantage of just under a minute to the chasers behind, but the Spaniard had two significant obstacles blocking him and potential stage glory. 

Situated within the final third of the race were three ascents, the first a Category 1, followed by a Category 2 with a summit finish on the Category 1 climb of Alto de Cabeza de Meda, which is a brutal 9.4% for 5.1 kilometres.

With the summit finish a key battleground for the overall general classification, UAE Team Emirates-XRG came to the fore in the peloton and worked together with NSN to maintain the gap at just over 3 minutes to the sole Fernandez ahead with 40 kilometres to go.

After cresting the first climbing obstacle of the day, the group of chasers was reduced to just two, and Fernadez's gap was cut down to just two minutes, with his hopes of a stage victory dwindling away. 15 kilometres out from the line and before the penultimate summit of the day, the group of chasers was caught, leaving Fernandez as the only remnant of the day's breakaway. 

Fernandez was soon joined by attackers from the peloton: Anton Schieffer (Visma | Lease a Bike and George Bennett (NSN), with Fernandez dropped from the front group a kilometre later after being unable to match the pace of the fresh attackers, and the newly formed duo took 30 seconds over the 30-man peloton with the climb to go.

5.3 Kilometres from the line, Kevin Vermaerke (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) bridged across to the front two as one by one, riders dropped from the peloton on the steep slopes.

Adam Yates rocketed from the peloton behind and blasted by the front group to be the sole leader and was on his way to the stage win and the yellow jersey.

There was an effort from the young Jørgen Nordhagen (Visma | Lease a Bike), who was just a handful of seconds behind until the gap grew out to over 20 seconds in the final 2 kilometres as Yates pushed on to take the stage win and move into yellow.