Burgos no-show continues

Day four of the Vuelta a Burgos was another day of anonymity for Euskaltel as an apparently innocuous stage wrecked havoc with the GC.

The penultimate stage from Dona Santos to Ciudad Romana De Clunia was supposed to be the easiest one out of the five, but the pace in the latter half of the race ensured it was everything but. The pack split into pieces, and the team were, unsurprisingly I'm afraid I have to say, caught out and left napping, resulting in Gorka Verdugo dropping from seventh to 13th overall, now lying a full 45 seconds down on runaway victor Daniel Moreno.

Katusha's Moreno didn't get his third stage though as Rabobank's punchy Paul Martens beat him to the line by a pair of seconds. Verdugo came across the line in 17th along with Henao, again showing his form is on the up ahead of the Vuelta. Antón came in 34th at 46 seconds, while Mikel Landa presumably took it easy en route to finishing next to last at more than nine minutes.

On the plus side, Mikel Astarloza ensured the day wasn't a total write-off for the riders in orange as he formed part of the break of the day. He's looking decent ahead of the Vuelta, but a bigger test will come tomorrow with the summit finish atop the fames Lagunas de Neila. Landa won there last year, and might have held something back today in order to go for a repeat tomorrow.

Stage four results (Orbea riders in cursive):

• (1, Paul Martens (Katusha), 3:50:35)
• 17, Gorka Verdugo, 0:32
• 34, Igor Antón, 0:46
• 41, Mikel Astarloza, 1:07
• 57, Juan José Oroz, 2:09
• 58, Iván Velasco, s.t.
• 63, Carlos Barbero, 2:18
• 79, Jon Aberasturi, 3:10
• 104, Aritz Etxebarria, 7:05
• 105, Ricardo García, s.t.
• 106, Romain Sicard, s.t.
• 107, Aritz Bagües, s.t.
• 112, Haritz Orbe, s.t.
• 113, Xabier Zabalo, s.t.
• 128, Omar Fraile, 9:39
• 139, Mikel Bikzarra, s.t.
• 141, Mikel Landa, s.t.

Photo: www.fundacioneuskadi.com