“I was sick yesterday, and sick all night last night. Finally this morning it was better. I guess it was all the adrenaline in the finish,” Farrar said on Fromsport.com. When asked what drove him, Farrar replied, “My motivation is to try to win— the most important thing is to get victories for the team.”
After chasing a four-rider break (Arnaud Labbe (Cofidis), Pierre Rolland (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), Jose Vincente Toribio Alcolea (Andalucia-Cajasur) and David Gutierrez (Footon-Servetto)) through a long, rolling stage with nor big climbs, no tricky descents, and no real flats, the peloton came together 15 km out and set a high pace for the final distance.
Liquigas took the lead through the final 10 km, handing off to HTC with five km to go. Entering the final two km, it was Lampre lining up, followed by Quick Step. Mark Cavendish’s leadout rider, Matt Goss, flatted five km out, leaving Cavendish on his own in the final kilometers.
With no one to lead him out, Cavendish had to work harder than the competition. With the road slanting slightly uphill and a headwind to boot, Cavendish needed to conserve his energy for the sprint, but also needed to keep a high pace to keep up with the other teams’ trains.
Meanwhile Farrar, lacking a leadout himself after Julian Dean crashed before Stage One, decided to stick to Cavendish.
Cavendish launched too early—“My lead-out man, Matt Goss punctured with 5km to go. So I had no choice but start sprinting from far. It was hard to hold it for so long,”Cavendish explained afterward too CyclinNews.com. Cavendish made a strong effort, but the faster he rode, the more he helped Tyler Farrar.
Finally, in the last 200 meters, Farrar cut to the left and blasted past Cavendish.The pair were ahead of the rest, but in the final few meters Cavendish ran dry and sat up, losing second to Euskatel’s Koldo De Larrea.
Farrar stayed strong and took the win, his seventh of the year and his fourth stage win in a Grand Tour.
“Of course it’s always nice to win against the best sprinter in the world,” Farrar told CyclingNews.com, “but it’s even better to win a stage at the Vuelta.”
| Vuelta a Espana Stage Four | |||
|
| Rider | Team | Time |
| 1 | Tyler Farrar | Garmin-Transitions | 5:03:36 |
| 2 | Koldo Fernandez De Larrea | Euskatel-Euskadi | +0:00 |
| 3 | Mark Cavendish | HTC-Columbia | +0:00 |
| 4 | Wouter Weylandt | Quick Step | +0:00 |
| 5 | Alessandro Petacchi | Lampre | +0:00 |
| 6 | Sébastien Chavanel | FDJ | +0:00 |
| 7 | Robert Förster | Milram | +0:00 |
| 8 | Denis Galimzyanov | Katusha | +0:00 |
| 9 | Theo Bos | Cervelo | +0:00 |
| 10 | Greg Van Avermaet | Omega Pharma-Lotto | +0:00 |
| 2010 Vuelta a Espana General Classification | |||
|
| Rider | Team | Time |
| 1 | Phillipe Gilbert | Omega Pharma-Lotto | 19:00:06 |
| 2 | Igor Anton | Euskatel-Euskadi | +10 |
| 3 | Joaquin Rodriguez | Katusha | +10 |
| 4 | Vincenzo Nibali | Liquigas | +12 |
| 5 | Peter Velits | HTC-Columbia | +16 |
| 6 | Tejay Van Garderen | HTC-Columbia | +29 |
| 7 | Tondo Volpini | Cervelo | +49 |
| 8 | Fränk Schleck | Saxo Bank | +50 |
| 9 | Ruben Plaza Molina | Caisse d’Epargne | +54 |
| 10 | Eziquiel Mosquera | Xacobeo-Galicia | +55 |
