Samuel Sanchez wins stage 4 in Tour of the Basque Country
Samuel Sánchez crossed the line with a look of pure happiness as he took the win on Stage 4 of Vuelta al Pais Vasco and claimed his first victory for the season and his first individual win with BMC Racing Team.
Stage 4 was nothing short of tough with 6 categorized climbs distributed over the 165km course, but it was a late attack from Sanchez with just under two kilometers to go that sealed the victory.
Sánchez’ win is another addition to his already impressive results list at Vuelta al Pais Vasco, taking his number of stage wins to eight. He has retained his fourth place on the General Classification, 8 seconds behind new race leader Wilco Kelderman (Team LottoNL-Jumbo).
When we managed to tear Sánchez away from his fans after the stage, this is what he had to say.
“For me it was a really, really beautiful day. The victory is really amazing. It’s a victory for my mind. It’s more important for me, for my mind and for the team. For BMC Racing Team today was a hard day because at the beginning of the stage, six of my teammates and I split from the peloton so we worked a lot to catch the first group. Then we caught the group before the final and I won the stage for my teammates.”, said Sanchez after he crossed the finish line.
“The stage was really hard. A lot of rain, a bit dangerous, a lot of big climbs and the pace of the race is so high. There were a lot of attacks at the final. When Contador attacked I stayed in his wheel and counter attacked in the last 200 meters of the climb. And then I went full gas to the finish and I could raise my hands as I crossed the line.”
Tour of the Basque Country 2016 – stage 4 results (Lesaka – Orio):
| 1 | Samuel Sanchez (BMC) |
4:13:12 |
| 2 | Rui Costa (Lampre – Merida) |
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| 3 | Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin) |
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| 4 | Alexis Vuillermoz (AG2R) |
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| 5 | Sergio Henao (Sky) |
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| 6 | Nairo Quintana (Movistar) |
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| 7 | Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) |
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| 8 | Wilco Kelderman (LottoNl-Jumbo) |
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| 9 | Lawson Craddock (Cannondale) |
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| 10 | Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) |
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General classification after stage 4:
| 1 | Wilco Kelderman (LottoNl-Jumbo) |
17:52:48 |
| 2 | Sergio Henao (Sky) |
+04” |
| 3 | Mikel Landa Meana (Sky) |
+07” |
| 4 | Samuel Sanchez (BMC) |
+08” |
| 5 | Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) |
+10” |
| 6 | Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) |
+12” |
| 7 | Rui Costa (Lampre – Merida) |
+14” |
| 8 | Nairo Quintana (Movistar) |
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| 9 | Robert Gesink (LottoNl-Jumbo) |
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| 10 | Sébastien Reichenbach (FDJ) |
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