Vuelta a Espana 2021 - Stage 4 as it happened: Jakobsen pips Demare in uphill sprint to take green

Updated 17/08/2021 at 18:56 GMT

See how a three-man Spanish break gave way before Dutchman Fabio Jakobsen capped his astonishing comeback from injury with a memorable win and the green jersey. You can watch La Vuelta live and ad-free on the Eurosport app and Eurosport.co.uk. Download the Eurosport app for iOS and Android now. You can also watch the most comprehensive live & ad-free racing on GCN+.

Fabio Jakobsen

Image credit: Getty Images

Stage 4 report: Jakobsen takes emotional win

A year from waking up from a medically induced coma after his horrific crash on the Tour de Pologne, Fabio Jakobsen got back to winning ways at La Vuelta on Tuesday. The Dutchman from Deceuninck-QuickStep powered past France’s Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) on a ramped finale to Stage 4 at Molina de Aragon to take his third win of the season while prising the green jersey from the shoulders of Stage 2 winner Jasper Philipsen.

Vuelta a España

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Jakobsen takes emotional Stage 4 win after thrilling uphill sprint

Taaramae battered and bruised but still in red

The Estonian successfully finished the stage despite his crash and the three-kilometre rule means he won't lose the red jersey following that crash.

Philipsen down in ninth; loses green jersey

Italy's Alberto Dainese and Australia's Michael Matthews completed the top five ahead of Piet Allegaert, Jordi Meeus, Matteo Trentin, Philipsen and Riccardo Minali. Demare looked to be on course for his first win since June but Jakobsen powered past him to the line after a late surge, with Denmark's Cort fading to third.

Jakobsen now leads the green jersey standings with 100 points against Philipsen's 68. No points today for Alex Aranburu, who could only take 16th on the line.

Victory for Fabio Jakobsen!

The Dutchman from Deceuninck-QuickStep prevails on the leg-sapping uphill sprint to the line - and that's an emotional win for the man whose career was in the balance after that horrific crash in the Tour de Pologne last season. It's Jakobsen who takes the win - and green jersey - ahead of Arnaud Demare and Magnus Cort.

Final kilometre

It's all strung out after a downhill segment ahead of the flamme rouge. Groupama and Deceuninck emerge on teh front though ahead of the ramp to the line...

2.5km: Crash! Red jersey down!

I spoke too soon... and Rein Taaramae has hit the deck after a touch of wheels on a tight bend. He's okay and back up but that will not be the way he'd have wanted to finish his first stage in red...

3km: Pack through the magic 3km marker

Under the banner they go and if there's an incident now then those affected will not lose any time. That may ease things up a little - although it's still Ineos and Movistar on the front after Jumbo-Visma took their foot off the gas.

6km: Now Jumbo and Bora edge forward

They're keeping their main men out of trouble. Talking of main men, we've just had a spotting of the red jersey Rein Taaramae who looks like he's going to get through his first day in the lead unscathed. the castle of Molina de Aragon is on the horizon.

9km: Tensions rise on the front

Movistar, Alpecin-Fenix, Groupama-FDJ, Bora-Hansgrohe, Team DSM, Ineos Grenadiers and Deceuninck-QuickStep are all currently on the front in anticipation of this ramped finale which could go to anyone from a pure sprinter to a wily old veteran like Alejandro Valverde...

14km: All over for the breakaway

Our Spanish trio perform the perfunctory fist-pumps as they sit up and get engulfed by the peloton for the inevitable catch. Now the teams of the sprinters and GC favourites form ahead of what will no doubt be a busy finale...

20km: The wind that never came

The peloton has passed by the exposed section where numerous wind turbines weren't exactly spinning at vortex speed, let alone a speed to boil a kettle. Not that you'd need a kettle to boil water in Spain in this weather. Just 20 klicks to go now for these three escapees, who have 23 seconds to play with and the main field bearing down on them. Groupama-FDJ are on the front for Demare but Bora-Hansgrohe and Movistar are also far forward.

30km: Roglic back after mechanical

Primoz Roglic, who looks almost unrecognisable in his regulation Jumbo-Visma kit and not in red/yellow/green/Slovenian national champion colours, had a mechanical issue and needed a bike change. But the double defending champion is back in the mix now ahead of today's finale. The three leaders, meanwhile, can see the peloton over their shoulders on these long straight stretches of road.

45km: Matthews one of the favourites

On an uphill finale - 6% over the last 300m - the Australian Michael Matthews should have a say in proceedings today. Alex Aranburu of Astana and Matteo Trentin of UAE Team Emirates should be motivated, while the likes of Jasper Philipsen, Fabio Jakobsen and Arnaud Demare are not, to be fair, exactly bad on these kinds of finishes, either.

Here's what the Team BikeExchange rider had to say this morning: "It's uphill, which suits me better normally. The flat fast ones are not normally my forte but today suits me a lot better. I think we just need to concentrate on ourselves. I think if the boys can get me in a good position in the final there, I can do my thing. We’ll just concentrate on making sure we’re in the front and where we need to be for the sprint. No pressure. I just enjoy riding my bike. I wasn’t meant to do the Vuelta, so every bonus I get here is awesome."

50km: Just one minute for trio

Madrazo, Canal and Bou are being left to dangle out in front of the peloton. It's one of those situations so common to Grand Tours where they know they're not going to stay out, the peloton knows, and we, the fans, know, and yet everyone pretends otherwise. They probably would sit up were it not for the pressures of getting their team sponsors some TV time.

62km: Advantage Philipsen in green jersey battle

Florian Senechal went clear of the peloton ahead of the sprint but his Deceuninck-QuickStep teammate Fabio Jakobsen showed no interest in the points and it was Jasper Philipsen, who is already in green, who crossed for fifth place behind Senechal and ahead of Team BikeExchange's Michael Matthews to become - for now - the outright leader in the points classification.

63km: Bou wins intermediate sprint

Spanish debutant Joan Bou comes from behind to pip Angel Madrazo in the intermediate sprint as the sandwich filler gets the better of the purple Burgos-BH bap.

70km: Groupama-FDJ put a man on the front

With the gap down to 1:25 for the three leaders, the Groupama-FDJ team of Arnaud Demare have put a man on the front amid the Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert train. The French team have no GC man and are here entirely in the service of the French sprinter, who could only take 14th place on Sunday's second stage. They need a better result today, with Demare now without a win since June.

83km: Gap starts to tumble

Our Spanish trio of Carlos Canal, Angel Madrazo and Joan Bou - who have been out since kilometre zero - have seen their advantage come down from 4:35 to 2:35 in the space of half an hour. What was already a hard task will be mission impossible now...

92km: Alpecin-Fenix commit a man to the chase

One of Jasper Philipsen's teammates has come to the front to lend a hand to Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert. We're still a way from the intermediate sprint but Alpecin will hope to reduce the arrears before then to ensure their Belgian sprinter has a chance to double up at the finish after his win in Stage 2. The gap drops below the four-minute mark accordingly.

102km: Splits in the peloton

A downhill segment over narrow, twisting roads sees the peloton sting out with numerous riders stuck in a group off the back once the race hits the arid plains at the foot of the descent. They should rejoin the fold but it's a reminder of how things could kick off should the wind get blustery on these exposed roads. The three leaders still have 4:35 to play with.

108km: Intermarche enjoying their day in the sun

And it should be more than a day for Rein Taaramae in red. His Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert team are still on the front of the peloton as they do the maillot rojo proud. It's been a great year for the Belgian team as they took a step-up into the WorldTour with stage wins in both the Giro and Vuelta.

Sean Kelly on Eurosport just now: "Intermarche will try to keep the red jersey for as long as possible because it’s huge exposure for a team which only came into the WorldTour this year."

118km: Four minutes for the trio ahead

Madrazo, Canal and Bou now have 4:05 over the peloton, which is being led by the Intermarche teammates of red jersey Rein Taaramae. They have got to the top of an uncategorised gradual uphill grind and are now plunging down to the valley beyond.

Could this be the year the Movistar trident comes good?

Enric Mas took a few seconds into his red jersey rivals yesterday after Movistar put in a good display in the closing moments of the stage with both Alejandro Valverde and Miguel Angel Lopez coming to the fore - all while Ecuadorian defactor Richard Carapaz was yo-yoing off the back. It's just a shame the Netflix cameras weren't rolling - because the Spanish team now have all three of their leaders clumped together in the top 10.

With Mas, Lopez and Valverde looking sharp, could this be the year Movistar’s trident comes good?

The Rein in Spain...

Ten years after his first and last stage win on the Vuelta, Rein Taaramae took his second yesterday. With the exception of two Estonian TT national championship victories, it was the 34-year-old's first pro win since 2016 when he won the Tour of Slovenia and picked up a stage off the back of a maiden stage win in the Giro d'Italia on the penultimate day. Taaramae said yesterday that he always dreamed of leading a Grand Tour and today he will experience the Vuelta's red jersey for the first time...

145km: Almost three minutes for the leaders

The gap is 2:45 for the breakaway, which features the youngest rider in the race - 20-year-old Carlos Canal. The Grand Tour debutant has this to say at the start of today's stage:

“La Vuelta ends in Galicia, which is also my home, where I live, and those stages are my main objective to catch the break and try to be combative and do my best. Today is going to be a very fast stage, the little wind we’ll have seems to be favourable. I think that if no team shakes the race it will be a pretty clear sprint in the end, but we will have to pay attention and hope that there are no surprises. I can use my abilities as a mountain biker in the twisty, complicated finish, where technique is important. In a very flat sprint the sprinters prevail but in sprints that go uphill or with technical entries I can be good at it, and I can do well in medium mountain stages as well.”

150km: Groundhog day for Madrazo

It's not the first time Angel "McLovin'" Madrazo has gone on the attack with a teammate early on in the Vuelta... two years ago, the Spaniard joined forces with teammate Jetse Bol in Stage 5 in a breakaway trio that also included compatriot Jose Herrada of Cofidis. After some serious yo-yoing on the final climb to the Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre, Madrazo fought back and took a maiden Grand Tour stage win ahead of his teammate Bol in a stunning Burgos-BH one-two. Will history repeat itself today as Madrazo teams up with teammate Canal in the break?

This tweet from the day of his win two years ago... with a nod to his reinvention at Delko before joining the boys in purple at Burgos-BH...

160km: All-Spanish trio ahead

The three riders who zipped clear at the gun were Angel Madrazo and Carlos Canal (both Burgos-BH) and Joan Bou of Euskaltel-Euskadi. Their gap is pushing one minute but with none of the three a threat on GC (the best placed rider is Madrazo, who is 7:25 down in the standings) they could well be given a little more leeway.

164km to go: Stage 4 under way

Rein Taaramae is realising a lifelong ambition by donning the leader's jersey of a Grand Tour after his victory atop Picon Blanco yesterday. The Estonian veteran is in red with Kenny Elissonde keeping Taaramae's polka dot jersey warm, Stage 2 winner Jasper Philipsen in green, and the reigning Giro champion Egan Bernal in white. Only one of those jerseys should have a chance of changing hands today what with there being no categorised climbs, no expected GC battle, but 70 green jersey points up for grabs.

And that's it, this short-ish 164km stage is under way... and we have a three-man break on the move from the gun!

Hola! Que tal? Get ready for Stage 4...

Good afternoon and welcome to live coverage of the fourth stage of La Vuelta with me, Felix Lowe, in the hot-seat for what should be a day for the sprinters. There's been talk of potential crosswinds in the second half of this short and largely flat stage to Molina de Aragon in central Spain, north-east of Madrid. But on paper it's a day that should reignite the battle for green with sprinters Jasper Philipsen, Fabio Jakobsen and Alex Aranburu currently locked together on 50pts in the points classification.

The riders are preparing themselves in the start town of El Burgo de Osma ahead of the neutral zone with the stage set to get under way at 12:47 UK time. Here's what's on the menu...

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Stage 3 recap - Veteran Taaramae wins on Picon Blanco to take red jersey

A decade after his first (and last) stage win on the Vuelta, and five years after he last tasted success on a Grand Tour at the Giro, Rein Taaramae got the better of his breakaway companions to secure a double-whammy: victory and the red jersey on the first summit finish of the race.

Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert veteran Taaramae proved the strongest of an eight-man move on the double-digit ramps of Picon Blanco, the Vuelta a Burgos climb being used for the first time in the Spanish tour. After a series of attacks from the American Joe Dombrowski (UAE Team Emirates) and France’s Lilian Calmejane (AG2R-Citroen) caused an initial shake-out, 34-year-old Taaramae took off with two kilometres remaining to take his first WorldTour win in five years.

Read Felix Lowe's full report here.

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You can watch La Vuelta live and ad-free on the Eurosport app and Eurosport.co.uk. Download the Eurosport app for iOS and Android now. You can also watch the most comprehensive live & ad-free racing on GCN+. Go deeper and get interactive with live polls & quizzes, plus rider profiles, race updates, results & more – plus stream exclusive cycling documentaries.