It was another fantastic day for Bahrain Victorious at La Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, as the team secured a second extraordinary victory with Santiago Buitrago on stage 4 (Oropesa del Mar – Portell de Morella, 181km). Most importantly, the Colombian climber is now the new overall leader.

In an explosive finale, Buitrago reeled in the late attack of Jefferson Cepeda (Movistar) before launching the decisive counterattack with 2 km to go, powering to victory with a 6-second gap over Jonathan Milan and Jakob Söderqvist (both Lidl-Trek).

“I can’t describe how happy I am. Today, I was mainly focused on gaining bonus seconds to take the leader’s jersey, and to be honest, the win was quite unexpected,” said Buitrago after celebrating his second stage victory in this year’s race.

“We thought it would be a day for the sprinters, like our former teammate Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), but in the finale, I was at the front with Pello (Bilbao), and we decided it was worth trying. I accelerated, went all in, and made it happen. It’s incredible—we thought it would be difficult to take back seconds in the GC, and instead, we took both the stage win and the leader’s jersey.”

Bahrain Victorious riders were attentive all day, managing the breakaway and staying in control of the race. On Alto de Vistabella del Maestrat, the final major climb of the stage, Lenny Martinez tried to get away with another rider, but the peloton didn’t let them go. Only Pablo Castrillo (Movistar) managed to escape, bridging to the only remaining member of the breakaway before attempting a solo attack with 60 km left. However, he was caught with 9 km to go. In the technical and challenging finale, Cepeda made a bold move, gaining a maximum of 15 seconds, but Buitrago timed his effort perfectly, catching the Ecuadorian just before the final steep ramp. Milan tried to create a gap, but in the end, Buitrago was simply the strongest, taking the win and the leader’s jersey.

Heading into the final stage, Buitrago leads the General Classification, with João Almeida (UAE) trailing by 18 seconds. He also retains the points classification jersey.

“There’s one more day, and it will be a hard one, but we have a strong team that can support me to defend this jersey,” Buitrago said.

Bahrain Victorious will also look to secure Bilbao’s podium position (3rd overall, +29”) and maintain their lead in the team classification.

Reflecting on the team’s effort, Sports Director Roman Kreuziger praised the squad’s execution:

“Hats off to our boys for how they handled today’s stage. Movistar made the race hard, attacking and keeping the pace high, but we managed it well. We initially aimed for bonus seconds, but when the gap was too big, we regrouped and adjusted our strategy. The guys followed orders perfectly and played it smart in the finale. Result-wise, it was an excellent day. I couldn’t be happier.

Tomorrow, we have one last challenge—it will be a tough job, but we’re confident that we can finish strong.”