Great Britain’s Ben Turner produced a stunning sprint finish at the Vuelta a Espana to claim his first ever Grand Tour stage win.
The Ineos Grenadiers rider won stage four from Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Belgian duo Jasper Philipsen and Edward Planckaert, with fellow Englishman Ethan Vernon of Israel-Premier Tech fourth on his 25th birthday.
Turner – a late call up to the Vuelta when Ineos team-mate Lucas Hamilton pulled out through illness – powered to victory on the long, rising finish.
France’s David Gaudu, who won the third stage, leads the overall standings having finished enough places in front of Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark to take the red jersey on count-back.
The longest stage of this year’s race at 206km, it featured over 3,000m of altitude packed largely into the first half of the day.
After two category two climbs, an early breakaway was caught with 90km remaining, the peloton using the long descents to reel them in.
Philipsen was initially well-placed behind team-mate Planckaert but as Turner and Vernon came alongside he was boxed in, and when he finally found some space it was too late to get on terms with pumping pistons of the 6ft 4in Turner.
It was Turner’s third win as a professional and he broke into tears shortly after crossing the line to secure the biggest win of his career to date.
“Today I just had the best guys around me and I did what I had to do. It was the perfect finish for me and I really believed in what I could do on it,” Turner said.
“The last 100m felt so long. I was devastated in the first sprint when my chain came off but I really believed in myself today. It’s just a crazy feeling.”
The stage, which started in Italy and ended in France, was the final one to be held outside Spain, with the action switching to Figueres on Wednesday for a 24.1km time trial.
