Rodriguez battles on Pico Villuercas

Carlos Rodriguez battled all the way to the line in order to limit his losses on the brutal Pico Villuercas summit finish on stage four. 

Rodriguez brought the Grenadiers home to move 18th overall, +1:30 on Primoz Roglic (Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe) who won the stage to take the race lead after the 14.6km climb which featured maximum gradients of 20%. 

Earlier, Josh Tarling and Brandon Rivera had fought hard to make the early breaks, escaping briefly before their respective moves were caught. 

The Grenadiers were then hampered by a crash which affected both Oscar Rodriguez and Laurens de Plus, but both were cleared to continue after a medical assessment. 

The eventual breakaway were not allowed to gain significant time, with Red Bull - Bora Hansgrohe working throughout the stage to maintain a strong pace in the peloton, meaning the escapees were caught on the final ascent. 

This lead to counter attacks which thinned the GC group until Roglic won a reduced sprint from the lead group to take the race lead.