Vuelta a Espana: Ben King wins stage four as Simon Yates gains time

29th Aug 2018 | Source: BBC

American Ben King won stage four of the Vuelta a Espana as Poland's Michal Kwiatkowski retained the leader's red jersey.

Team Dimension Data rider King, 29, took the 161km stage to Alfacar as he out-sprinted Kazakh Nikita Stalnov in the race's first summit finish.

Britain's Simon Yates moved up to third in the overall standings, 10 seconds behind Team Sky's Kwiatkowski.

"It's a dream come true," King told Eurosport. "I'm still in shock."

"I didn't start believing it until the last kilometre.

"I set winning a Grand Tour stage as a goal for myself at the beginning of this year. I've worked so hard for this and sacrificed so much to make this happen."

King, Astana's Stalnov and Lotto-Soudal's Jelle Wallays attacked with 15km to go on the category four climb, before Wallays faded with 8km left.

Pierre Rolland bridged the gap to the leading pair shortly before 2010 US road race champion King sprinted clear of Stalnov with 100m remaining to win in four hours 33 minutes 12 seconds.

Mitchelton-Scott rider Yates broke clear from the peloton on the final climb to finish seventh on the stage - 2mins 48secs behind King - and gain 27 seconds on Kwiatkowski.

Bora-Hansgrohe's Emanuel Buchmann finished two seconds behind Yates to move up to second in the general classification - seven sevens behind Kwiatkowski.

Alejandro Valverde, the 2009 winner, is fourth - 12 seconds off the lead- and 2016 champion Nairo Quintana is 33 seconds adrift in eighth.

Four-time Grand Tour winner and 2010 Vuelta champion Vincenzo Nibali lost 11:04 to King on the day and is now 12:33 behind Kwiatkowski.

Defending champion Chris Froome and fellow Briton and Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas are not competing in the Vuelta.

Stage five takes the riders 188.7km from Granada and ends with a long downhill to Roquetas de Mar.