Roglic in red after sprinting to stage win in Spain

Three-times former champion Primoz Roglic has won the first mountain stage of this year's Vuelta a Espana as he showed his strength at the end of a ferocious climb to Pico Villuercas.

On a baking hot 170km fourth stage in which the peloton crossed from Portugal into Spain for the first time, Roglic burst past Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto Dstny) to snatch the win.

Belgium's Van Eetvelt paid the price for celebrating what would have been a maiden Grand Tour stage win too early, raising his arm in triumph then banging his handlebars in frustration as Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe rider Roglic sneaked past on the line.

Slovenian Roglic moved into the overall race lead for the first time, taking the red jersey from Belgium's Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease A Bike).

"It was not the main objective of the day (to win the stage)," Roglic told Eurosport. "But when you see the guys fighting hard in this heat I was happy to finish it off."

The first day for the GC contenders to play their cards concluded with riders facing gradients of up to 20 per cent in the last few kilometres and a group of seven approached a sprint to the line.

Mikel Landa (T Rex - Quick-Step)made the first move but was quickly caught by Van Eetvelt only for Roglic to put down a marker.

Portugal's Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) finished third on the stage and is second overall, eight seconds back. Enric Mas (Movistar) placed fourth in the stage and is third on GC, trailing Roglic by 32 seconds.

American defending champion Sepp Kuss (Visma–Lease a Bike) lost 28 seconds to Roglic and is 1.14 behind.

Six seconds further back is Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) in 14th, with Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) the only other Australian in the top 50, placed 23rd, 1.56 off the lead.

Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) gained two points on Van Aert in the points race, which the Belgian now leads 111-105 with third place 70 points adrift.

Stage five on Wednesday should suit the sprinters in a relatively flat 177 km route to Seville.

with AP