The best young rider of the 2015 Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco, Simon Yates finished in 12th place for ORICA-GreenEDGE on stage four after staying with the leaders over the final climbs and contesting the push to the finish in Orio.
Yates has steadily moved up the general classification and now sits in 21st place, 51seconds down on new race leader Wilco Kelderman (LottoNl-Jumbo) going into the tomorrows Queen stage.
Brother Adam Yates finished only a few seconds behind the front group after supporting Simon over the final climbs. Stage four was won by Samuel Sanchez (BMC) after a late solo attack in the last two kilometres of the race.
Sport director Neil Stephens was happy with how the team performed.
“We had a good day today,” said Stephens. “The team did well to protect and support Adam and Simon (Yates) until we got into the serious climbing and of course Simon did great work to get into the lead group and stay there until the finish.”
| Place | Rider/Team | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Samuel Sanchez (SPA) - BMC Racing Team | 4:13:12 |
| 2 | Rui Costa (POR) - Lampre - Merida | ST |
| 3 | Warren Barguil (FRA) - Team Giant-Alpecin | ST |
| 4 | Alexis Vuillermoz (FRA) - AG2R La Mondiale | ST |
| 5 | Sergio Henao (COL) - Team Sky | ST |
| 6 | Nairo Quintana (COL) - Movistar Team | ST |
| 7 | Alberto Contador (SPA) - Tinkoff Team | ST |
| 8 | Wilco Kelderman (NED) - Team LottoNl-Jumbo | ST |
| 9 | Lawson Craddock (USA) - Cannondale Pro Cycling | ST |
| 10 | Joaquin Rodriguez (SPA) - Team Katusha | ST |
| Place | Mitchelton-SCOTT Riders | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | Simon Yates (GBR) - ORICA-GreenEDGE | ST |
| 36 | Adam Yates (GBR) - ORICA-GreenEDGE | 0:01:17 |
| 44 | Michael Albasini (SWI) - ORICA-GreenEDGE | 0:02:26 |
| 90 | Simon Gerrans (AUS) - ORICA-GreenEDGE | 0:11:10 |
| 95 | Christian Meier (CAN) - ORICA-GreenEDGE | 0:11:10 |
| 106 | Ruben Plaza (SPA) - ORICA-GreenEDGE | 0:11:10 |
| 109 | Christopher Juul Jensen (DEN) - ORICA-GreenEDGE | 0:11:10 |
| 119 | Amets Txurruka (SPA) - ORICA-GreenEDGE | 0:18:16 |
