Volta a Catalunya stage 4: Marijn van den Berg wins bunch sprint

Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost) won a dicey finish on stage 4 at the Volta a Catalunya, edging out Arne Marit (Intermarché-Wanty) and Emīls Liepiņš (dsm-Firmenich PostNL) on the line in Lleida.

Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) was well positioned on the first sprint stage of the race but started his sprint slightly too early, providing an unplanned lead-out for Van den Berg and eventually crossing the line fourth.

Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) provided an excellent lead-out for Ethan Hayter but the Brit was boxed in at the finish and didn’t have the speed to get past the victorious Dutchman, finishing in seventh place.

“It was a really fast day, and the plan was to go for me the whole day. The team rode in the front to control the break, I felt quite good all day. In the end it was hectic with all the roundabouts. I knew Bryan Coquard was really fast and to aim for his wheel. I kept it until the finish and just came over it in the last few hundred metres," Van den Berg said at the finish.

“I made a big step in the winter again. It was going really well in the beginning and then I crashed quite hard in Algarve, and had a concussion so I was out for a little bit. I started competing last week in Milano-Torino and Milan-San Remo and came here to focus on getting in shape again and see how the outcome would be in the stage today. Now I’m back on track I would say.”

How it unfolded

Stage 4 offered a brief respite for the sprinters in the middle of the hilly race that has so far looked like a training ride for Tadej Pogačar and a scramble among the rest to keep up. The parcours ran for 169km, with the first 60km descending out of Sort in the Pyrenees before tackling one categorised climb, the category 2 Port d’Àger, which slopes uphill at 5.7%.

After cresting the hill at around the 70km to go mark, the riders had 25km downhill again before a long, flat run-in to the finish in Lleida. It looked like a fairly straightforward day for the fast men but with the prospect of several tricky roundabouts in the final twenty kilometres to contend with.

Lots of riders attempted to get up the road but ultimately only three managed to make it stick: perennial breakaway contender Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Dstny), Idar Andersen (Uno-X Mobility), and Urko Berrade (Equipo Kern Pharma).

Their lead was up to three and a half minutes at the top of the Port d’Àger, where de Gendt took maximum KoM points, and just under three minutes as the veteran Belgian claimed all three points at the first of three intermediate sprints, in Balaguer.

But with the sprinters’ teams massing on the front and Berrade jettisoned with around 60km to go – De Gendt appeared frustrated at his lack of contribution – that lead was rapidly shaved down.

With few pure sprinters making an appearance in Catalonia thanks to the race’s spiky profile, Cofidis, Intermarché-Wanty and EF Education-EasyPost all made a rare appearance setting the pace on the front in the service of Coquard, Marit and Van den Berg.

It proved not to be De Gendt’s day to add to his five Catalunya stage victories as the Belgian and Andersen were reabsorbed with just under 30km to go, just before the last of the day’s three intermediate sprints in Les Borges Blanques.

Three GC riders turned into sprinters to battle for the valuable bonus seconds. Eighth-placed Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious) crossed first and took the maximum three seconds, seventh-placed Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) took second and Poels’ teammate Antonio Tiberi, 11th on GC, came in third.

The final sprint

With the race winding down towards the sprint, 39-year-old Luis Ángel Maté (Euskaltel Euskadi) made a break for it, getting a 15 second gap on the bunch. The Spaniard was kept on a tight leash as the sprinters’ teams looked to position their lead-outs as well as possible for the tricky final twenty kilometres.

Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost) and a train of fellow pink and yellow riders set the pace on the front for Van den Berg approaching the final 10km.

UAE Team Emirates and race leader Pogačar moved to the front as Maté was swallowed up, perhaps mindful of the complicated run-in and potential for crashes, while Ineos Grenadiers fancied Ethan Hayter's chances and were a strong presence in the bunch.

GC contenders and former Grand Tour winners Egan Bernal and Geraint Thomas took to the front inside 5km to deliver Hayter – sporting bandages on one elbow – to the line as the peloton tackled roundabout after roundabout in a dicey finish.

Hayter was excellently positioned as the peloton successfully negotiated the final right-hand turn inside 1.5km to go was negotiated successfully, with Coquard the first to open up his sprint.

That proved to be a mistake for the Frenchman as Van den Berg, Marit and Liepiņš overtook him on the final ramp to the line, with Van den Berg claiming his first victory of 2024 by a bike-length and first since crashing out at the Volta ao Algarve.

It was a calm day for the GC contenders as all were safely delivered through the roundabouts, leaving Pogačar still in the leader's green and white jersey and with an emphatic lead of 2:27 over Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step).

Kuss and Poels’ bonus seconds made no change to the overall standings, while De Gendt lost out both on the stage win and on the day's combativity award, won by breakaway companion Berrade.