Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty) crossed the finish line first on a crash-marred largely neutralised stage 4 at the Itzulia Basque Country.
Officials neutralized the main peloton - with the exception of six breakaway riders - after a serious crash on a descent with 35km to go, which saw multiple riders go down, including overall race leader Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe), Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep).
Although the main field was neutralised into Legutio, and GC times were not taken at the finish, officials allowed the original breakaway of six riders to continue the last 20km and contest the stage win.
Three of those six riders continued onward: Meintjes, Reuben Thompson (Groupama), and Karel Vacek (Burgos-BH). Some 10 kilometres out, Meintjes went clear and crossed the line to take the stage win.
All of the riders were given the same general classification time. As
Roglič and
Evenepoel were forced to
abandon the race,
Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), who was third overall, became the new race leader.
Also
Vingegaard and 8 other cyclists had to
abandon in this stage 4.
CFF League stage 4 winner =
Animatoca Vos is still the GC leader with 2 more stages to go.