DiData’s King rides to Vuelta stage win

Ben King earned the biggest victory of his career by outsprinting Nikita Stalnov in a summit finish on stage four of the Vuelta a Espana on Tuesday.

King, who rides for the SA Team Dimension Data, triumphed in 4hr 33min 12sec, a mere two seconds head of Astana Pro Team’s Stalnov.

American King, 29, attacked Kazakhstan’s Stalnov a couple of hundred metres before the end, storming past him for his first stage win since the 2016 Tour of California.

Michal Kwiatkowski retained his overall lead but the Team Sky rider lost time on the 162km ride from Velez, Malaga to Alfacar’s Sierra de la Alfaguara, coming in just over 3min down on King.

The Pole leads Germany’s Emanuel Buchmann of BoraHansgrohe by 7sec, with Britain’s Simon Yates in third and Spain’s Alejandro Valverde in fourth. Yates burst into contention for the general classification with an impressive attack in the final 4km.

King and Stalnov stayed ahead after the day’s early break and although Pierre Rolland of EF Drapac came within touching distance, he was left behind in the final sprint.

“It’s a dream come true, I didn’t start believing it until the last kilometre,” said King.

“We’ve been building all season towards this. I raced with this team in Austria and the Vuelta a Burgos and we just continue to improve.”

Stage five features few flat areas and sees riders travel 188.7km from Granada to Roquetas de Mar on Wednesday.