Roglic wins first mountain stage and takes lead in Vuelta

Three-time champion Primoz Roglic won the first mountain stage of this year’s Vuelta a Espana and took the red leader’s jersey.

The Slovenian passed Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny) at the finish line to win Tuesday’s fourth stage after a tough 14km climb to Pico Villuercas in the scorching heat.

Belgian Van Eetvelt celebrated his first stage win in a Grand Tour too early: he threw his arm in the air when Roglic overtook him.

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Roglic was 30 seconds behind classification leader Wout van Aert after the first three stages.

But the Belgian finished the 170-kilometre route on Tuesday with a deficit of more than 16 minutes, allowing Roglic to take the lead in the general classification.

“It wasn’t the main goal of the day (to win the stage),” Roglic told Eurosport.

“But when you see how hard the boys fight in this heat, I’m glad I finished it.”

Portugal’s Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) finished third in the stage and is second overall, eight seconds behind Roglic.

Results of phase four

1. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) 4 hours 26 minutes 49 seconds

2. Lennert van Eetvelt (Bel/Lotto Dstny) Same time

3. Joao Almeida (Por/UAE Team Emirates)

4. Enric Mas (Spa/Movistar)

5. Felix Gall (Aut/Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale)

6. Matthew Riccitello (US/Israel-Premier Tech)

7. Mikel Landa (Spa/Soudal-Quick-Step)

8. Antonio Tiberi (Ita/Bahrain wins) +18 sec

9. George Bennett (NZ/Israel-Premier Tech) +28sec

10. Pavel Sivakov (Fra/UAE Team Emirates) Same time

General classification

1. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) 14 hours 33 minutes 8 seconds

2. Joao Almeida (Por/UAE Team Emirates) +8 sec

3. Enric Mas (Spa/Movistar) +32 sec

4. Antonio Tiberi (Victorious Italy/Bahrain) +38 sec

5. Lennert van Eetvelt (Bel/Lotto Dstny) +41 sec

6. Felix Gall (Aut/Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +47sec

7. Brandon McNulty (USA/UAE Team Emirates) +50sec

8. Mattias Skjelmose (Den/Lidl-Trek) +58sec

9. Mikel Landa (Spa/Soudal-Quick-Step) Same time

10. Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +1 min