Iván Díaz and Eva Lechner lead Stage 4

Clàudia Galicia crashes and loses 3 minutes in the overall

Andalusia Day promised spirited action in a short but intense stage, and it delivered. After an exciting start, nine cyclists escaped to the head of the race in the men's category. Meanwhile, in the women's category, the leader Clàudia Galicia (Megamo Factory Team) forged a white-hot pace from the start to open up a gap on Eva Lechner (Trinx Factory Team) and Blaza Pintaric.

It wasn't until around kilometer 40 that the decisive action in the men's category took place. Alexey Medvedev (ASD CICLI TADDEI) made a break to try and go solo, which provoked a response from Iván Díaz. The Valencian made his move and, after a spectacular descent, he was left alone. Medvedev, on the other hand, got shucked after suffering technical problems.

Díaz then went solo to the finish line, which he crossed with a two-minute lead over Tiago Ferreira (DMT Racing Team By Marconi Project's), and Ben Zwiehoff (Team Centurion - Vaude).

"For me winning this race is a dream. I had this stage marked on the calendar and, with the realization that yesterday I lost all options in the general classification, today’s stage was even more important. I wanted to make a move in the final part if I arrived with the best, but the stage was shaken up early thanks to Medvedev's move, so I took advantage of it. I descended well and without any errors, which made it possible for me to escape alone," said Díaz after winning the fourth stage.

In the general classification, Fabian Rabensteiner (Team TREK-Pirelli) is still the leader with more than a two-minute advantage over Failli (ASD CICLI TADDEI) and almost three minutes over Ben Zwiehoff.

As far as the women's category is concerned, today’s stage completely changed it. In the stage’s last big descent, Clàudia Galicia suffered a huge crash and, aside from losing her race focus, she also suffered an injury to her finger. Eva Lechner was the race leader, arriving alone to the finish line and striking a hard blow to her rivals. Lechner finished 1:29 up on the Estonian Janika Loiv, and 3:17 ahead of Clàudia Galicia, who finished third.

"It was a very hard stage. I tried to control my efforts from the start and it worked. Little by little I felt better and in the end, I was able to push. I will try to do my best in the remaining stages, but there’s still a lot to do. All I can do is try.", explained Lechner after her victory.

Despite the problems she suffered, the Catalan racer continues to lead with a little more than three minutes over Eva Lechner, and more than 14 minutes over Janika Loiv.

"It was a journey. After the crash, I had a lot of pain in my finger and many technical problems. The chain jumped and the gears failed. It was a very difficult stage; I could hardly grip my water bottle. On the positive side, I was able to finish third, so my physical fitness is good. Now we’ll have to see if I can start tomorrow," confessed Clàudia Galicia after her crash.