Vuelta a Burgos 2025 Stage 4

August 8, 2025 There are only two categorized climbs in the 163KM from Doña Santos to Regumiel de la Sierra but that does not tell the whole story. On the trip East, the route goes through Quintanilla del Coco twice on a loop before continuing to Salas de los Infantes and Vilviestra del Pinar on very lumpy terrain. The riders find the first categorized climb of the Alto del Collado de Vilviestra (5.3KM at 3.8%) which summits at 42KM to go. The last climb of the day is the Alto del Cargadero which goes up in two steps. The first is 4.1KM at 5% then a short downhill before a 1.5KM rise to the top at 6.5%. Just 11.5KM remain in the stage by the top with the riders plunging into the village of Regumiel de la Sierra for the finish with 2,500M of elevation gain in the legs. The heat was back. At the finish line, temperatures were hitting 35C (95F), so cooling was going to be imperative to get a result today. A seven man group got away after another hard fight to make the break. The group consisted of Javier Romo of Movistar, Nickolas Zukowsky of Q36.5, Larry Warbasse of Tudor Pro Cycling, Damiano Caruso of Bahrain Victorious, Ben Zwiehoff of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Rui Oliveira of UAE-XRG, and Rui Costa of EF-Education EasyPost. They were being chased by race leaders Decathlon AG2R and had 3 minutes 25 seconds with 57KM to go. The break arrived at the Alto del Collado de Vilviestra with 47KM to go still with over 3 minutes 30 seconds. They worked well together up the exposed climb as Oliveira took the points and started the descent. The race continued in a holding pattern for the next 25KM into Navaleno as the break approached the final climb of Alto del Cargadero with the same 3 minute 30 second gap. The peloton finally woke up as they came into Navaleno. The road was blocked left to right with teams fighting to be at the front for a short downhill before the climb began. The increase in speed from the bunch cut the gap down to 2 minutes 45 seconds when the leaders started the climb with 18KM to go. After less than 1KM of climbing, Zwiehoff and Caruso attacked and were clear of the rest of the break. Caruso was on a great day and Zwiehoff could not handle the Italian's pace and was forced to dial it back. Caruso took the first part of the climb and the downhill quickly and got up and over the KOM of the Alto del Cargadero with 40 seconds. He held his lead to the finish and took a marvelous win for one of the oldest riders in the peloton at 37 years old. Costa took the sprint for second ahead of Oliveira, Warbasse, then Zwiehoff, 1 minute 26 seconds after Caruso. In the peloton, there were a few attacks near the top of the climb but Decathlon AG2R had the resources to knit it back together and the bunch descended as one. There were no changes in the top 10 in GC but that will likely change on tomorrow's final stage to Lagunas de Neila.