Place Name: Carretera De Montserrat
Address: Carretera De Montserrat, 08199 Monistrol de Montserrat, Barcelona, Spain
Details: March 27, 2025
The GC is finely balanced but another mountain top finish could change that. It is less than 20KM from the start in Sant Vicenç de Castellet to the Monastery of Montserrat which hosts the finish but the riders take the long way for 189KM of racing across nearly 3,000M of elevation. The stage profile rolls all day with none of the climbing going much over 5% until the final climb which is 8.8KM long at over 6.5%. There is one more summit finish after today but the main GC contenders will want to put a stamp on the race before then. The Volta Ciclista a Catalunya visits the Monastery in Montserrat for the third time history but 2025 marks the 1,000th anniversary of the founding of the Monastery.
There was plenty of sunshine at the start and also plenty of attacking. The first Intermediate Sprint with bonus seconds available came after just 11KM of racing in Manresa. Primož Roglič of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe won the sprint for 3 seconds with Axel Laurance of Ineos taking 2, and Juan Ayuso of UAE-XRG taking the last second available. A group of twelve formed the break but Georg Steinhauser of EF-Education EasyPost and Johannes Staune-Mittet of Decathlon AG2R went clear of the rest of the breakaway on the Turó del Puig with around 68KM to go. They had 30 seconds on the other ten riders from the break and an additional 3 minutes on the peloton with 56KM to go.
Ineos and UAE-XRG took turns pulling in the peloton and had the gap to Steinhauser and Staune-Mittet down to 2 minutes with 25KM as they started the downhill run to Monistrol de Montserrat for the start of the final climb. The positioning battle in the peloton brought the gap down to 1 minute 10 seconds by the bottom of the climb. Steinhauser set a pace that Staune-Mittet could not follow but the gap continued to come down.
Soudal Quickstep set the early pace on the climb but UAE-XRG took over with Marc Soler who reduced the group down to around 20 riders when he swung off with 3.2KM to go. Adam Yates did a hard, 700M pull before Ayuso attacked with 2.5KM to go. Steinhauser was caught as Ayuso attacked and only Mikel Landa of Soudal Quickstep immediatley responded, although it may have been a mistake because Landa couldn't hold on to Ayuso and slowly drifted backwards. Roglič wound up his cadence and came across to Ayuso with 2KM remaining. The pair worked together but a group of six riders including Enric Mas of Movistar, Lenny Martinez of Bahrain-Victorious, Felix Gall of Decathlon AG2R, Lennert Van Eetvelt of Lotto, Matthew Riccitello of Israel-Premier Tech, and Landa formed behind and were only 10 seconds back with 800M to go. Ayuso and Roglič marked each other out and chase caught on with 500M to go. Roglič put in one more dig which drew out Ayuso again. Ayuso started his sprint from behind Roglič at 250M but Roglič got on top of the gear and they went shoulder to shoulder to the line for a second day in a row. It would be Roglič to take the spoils today however, nudging out Ayuso by half a wheel on the line. Mas led the chase group in just 3 seconds later.
After all the time bonuses were factored in, Roglič took over the GC lead but he and Ayuso are tied on time. Mas is now in third at 20 seconds with Landa in fourth at 21 seconds.
Tags: Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, 2025, March, Stage 4, Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 2025, Sant Vicenç de Castellet, Montserrat Mil·lenari, Primož Roglič, Axel Laurance, Juan Ayuso, Georg Steinhauser, Johannes Staune-Mittet, Marc Soler, Adam Yates, Mikel Landa, Enric Mas, Lenny Martinez, Felix Gall, Lennert Van Eetvelt, Matthew Riccitello