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Tour of the Basque Country: Wout Poels wins stage four as Alberto Contador's lead is cut

Image: Alberto Contador lost two seconds to rival Alejandro Valverde

The Netherlands’ Wout Poels claimed a fine solo win on stage four of the Tour of the Basque Country as Alberto Contador saw his overall lead cut.

Poels attacked just short of the summit of the day’s final climb and hung on over the remaining 2km of flat road to the finish in Arrate to win by one second.

Alejandro Valverde, who is second overall, managed to escape the attentions of Contador in the final few metres and crossed the line in second place, just ahead of fellow Spaniard Samuel Sanchez.

Contador followed two seconds later in tenth place, meaning his lead in the general classification falls to 12 seconds with two stages remaining.

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The 151km fourth stage contained five categorised climbs, with the last, the category-one Alto de Uxartza, arriving right at the end of the day.

Poels hits form

Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) was the most active rider on the middle part of the ascent, attacking no fewer than three times, but on each occasion he was chased down by Valverde (Movistar) and the exertions appeared to wear the race leader out.

Poels (Omega Pharma – Quick-Step) then formed part of a lead quartet when he followed a surge by Simon Spilak (Katusha) 3.6km from home, before attacking solo with 2.8km remaining.

The 26-year-old took a slender advantage over the summit of the climb but stretched it to a maximum of 15 seconds on the gentle downhill to the line.

The gap tumbled as Sanchez (BMC) and Valverde launched belated counter-attacks, but Poels had already done enough to seal a first victory of the season.

Earlier in the final climb, Britain’s Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) showed his promise by launching a solo attack, although compatriot Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky) abandoned the race.

Stage four result

1 Wout Poels (Ned) Omega Pharma – Quick-Step
2 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar, +1sec
3 Samuel Sanchez (Spa) BMC, same time
4 Tom-Jelte Slagter (Ned) Garmin-Sharp, +3
5 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Belkin, st
6 Yuri Trofimov (Rus) Katusha, st
7 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC, st
8 Mikel Landa (Spa) Astana, st
9 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Merida, st
10 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo, st

General classification

1 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo, 7:51:54
2 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar, +12secs
3 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Merida, +36
4 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC, same time
5 Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, st
6 Yuri Trofimov (Rus) Katusha, st
7 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Omega Pharma – Quick-Step, +41
8 Mikel Landa (Spa) Astana, +54
9 Wout Poels (Ned) Omega Pharma – Quick-Step, +55
10 Samuel Sanchez (Spa) BMC, +56

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