Stage four of the Vuelta challenged the riders to a 152.5-kilometer hilly route from Vitoria-Gasteiz to Laguardia in the Basque Country.

Roglic took the stage victory in a powerful way by attacking in the final meters of the climb to the finish line and outsprinting sprint ace Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) and all fellow challengers for the general classification win. Slovenian Roglic thereby confirmed Roadcycling.com’s prediction of him having regained full fitness in time for the start of the Vuelta following the crash and injury sustained in this year’s Tour de France.

By clinching the victory in today’s stage, Roglic took the imposing red Vuelta leader jersey from teammate Edoado Affini and gained ten bonification seconds on GC competitors such as Pavel Sivakov (Ineos-Grenadiers), Jai Hindley (Team Bora-Hansgrohe) and Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos-Grenadiers). Only fellow GC contender Enric Mas (Team Movistar) managed to join Roglic in securing bonus seconds by taking four seconds for his third place finish. It was the 10th Vuelta stage victory for Roglic of his impressive career so far.

The 32-year-old Slovenian is now the fourth Team Jumbo-Visma rider to hold the red leader's jersey in as many stages of the current Vuelta. "A dream scenario for the team," Roglic explained after being celebrated on the podium. "Today, things were in my favor. The team has my sincere gratitude for that. Everyone has worked hard. The stage win is the finest way to reward that." Noteworthily, teammate Sepp Kuss is second in the GC following today’s stage and we recommend general classification favorites to keep a watchful eye on Kuss, who is a skilled climber that may end up as a challenger for the overall Vuelta win this year.

"It’s nice that I have this jersey now, but the big goal remains to get on the highest podium step in Madrid", Roglic said. "The atmosphere around the team is very positive. It started with the team time trial victory. We have had some great days. So far, everything is going crescendo."

His Tour de France crash no longer has an impact on him as his back pains have faded. "I have recovered completely. It doesn’t bother me anymore."