Daniel Moreno (Katusha) made one of his trademark accelerations on the uphill finish on today's 4th stage of the Vuelta a Espana and despite Fabian Cancellara's (Radioshack) best efforts to reel him in, the Spaniard held on to win the stage which finished on the isthmus known as "the end of the world". A split in the peloton caused Chris Horner (Radioshack) to lose 6 seconds to the stage winner and so Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) is back in the leader's jersey

Daniel Moreno is known as an extremely powerful puncheurs who has won the Fleche Wallonne and two stages of the Vuelta a Burgos by launching his devastating accelerations on uphill finishes. Having already used those abilities to finish 2nd on stage 2, the Spaniard once again underlined his capabilities when he won today's 4th stage of the Vuelta a Espana.

Mreno was well-placed near the front of the peloton when it sped towards the top of the 2km climb to the finish on the isthmus known as "the end of the world". With less than a kilometre to go, he made one of his trademark accelerations and immediately created a big gap.

Fabian Cancellara had planned to make a similar move but the Swiss was a little bit too late. When he launched his offensive, Moreno was already far up the road and the Swiss faced an uphill battle to catch the leader.

His quest was ultimately unsuccessful and so he had to settle for 2nd behind the powerful Spaniard. The sprinters were left to fight it out for 3rd with Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE) edging out Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) in the battle for the final podium spot.

A split in the peloton put race leader Chris Horner (Radioshack) on the wrong side and so he lost 6 seconds to the stage winner. As Vincenzo Nibali had stayed attentive and finished ahead of the gap, the Astana leader is now back in the red jersey with a 3-second lead over the American.

He takes that narrow lead into tomorrow's fifth stage which has a lumpy profile but finally could allow the sprinters to come into action. Starting at 15.00 you can follow the stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

An aggressive start

The 189km fourth stage had a rather hilly profile and took the riders up the 30% climb Mirador del Ezaro just 34,4km from the finish line. A flat run led to the final 3,5% climb to the finish and an uphill sprint for the puncheurs was expected.

For the first time in this year's Vuelta, there was a battle to get into today's early break. A Vacansoleil rider launched the first attack but he was quickly reeled in. Numerous moves were launched until the rigt combination was finally formed at the 9km mark.

The break is formed

Dennis Vanendert (Lotto), Jussi Veikkanen (FDJ), Dailo Wyss (BMC) and Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) got clear and were later joined by Alex Rasmussen (Garmin). Winner Anacona (Lampre) tried to bridge across but never accomplished his mission.

Horner's Radioshack team did the early pace-setting in the peloton and the made sure that the gap didn't grow too much. At the 90km mark, it had, however, passed the 7-minute mark and it was time for the sprint teams to kick into action.

The chase kicks off

The first squad to do so was Omega Pharma-Quick Step which had clear intentions with Gianni Meersman. The Belgian team hit the front and Belgian time trial Kristof Vandewalle did a good job to bring the gap down to 5 minutes.

A fierce crosswind meant that there was plenty of nervousness and a fierce battle for position going on in the peloton. That forced Omega Pharma-Quick Step out of the lead positions as all the big teams tried to keep their captains near the front and the gap was now melting away.

The break splits up

Matteo Tosatto (Saxo-Tinkoff) took a huge turn on the front during the run-in to the Mirador del Ezaro climb but as soon as they started the ascent, no team took control. Instead, the big favouites stayed attentive near the front but the percentages were so extreme that the peloton splintered to pieces.

Up ahead, Rasmussen was the first to fall off and Veikkanen didn't survive for much longer. When the riders hit the steepest part, Vanendert was dropped and finally Wyss also had to surrender. Edet was powering along with a nice rhythm and did a good job to stay away while Wyss was the only other rider to stay clear over the top.

Flecha attacks

Juan Antonio Flecha (Vacansoleil) was the first to attack from the peloton which was still led by no organized team. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky) made a short-lived move but there wasn't much aggression in the peloton. Nicolas Roche (Saxo-Tinkoff) accelerated near the top and overtook Flecha to crest the summit in third position but those two riders were reeled in on the descent as Astana took over the pace-setting with Tanel Kangert.

Only 50 riders had survived the climb and so Movistar decided to set a hard pace in an attempt to keep the sprinters at bay, thus putting Alejandro Valverde in a winning position. They caught Wyss but moments later they decided to stop their effort and the peloton slowed completely down.

Txurruka bridges across

Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural) saw an opportunity to attack and no one had any interest in reeling in the Basque. Edet decided to wait for his chasers and those two riders combined forces on the front.

The lull in the peloton allowed more riders to attack. Jose Herrada (Movistar), Domink Nerz (BMC), Luis-Leon Sanchez (Belkin) and Angel Vicioso (Katusha) joined the front duo while a big group with sprinters like Meersman made it back to the peloton.

Radioshack reacts

With Sanchez being only 1.19 down on GC, Radioshack had to react. The team put Ben Hermans, Yaroslav Popovych, Matthew Busche and Gregory Rast on the front and those 4 riders dug really dig. With 17km to go, they had accomplished their mission when they reeled in the break.

Edet refused to give up and so he attacked on his own, staying clear for another 3km until Radioshack finally brought in back together. Orica-GreenEDGE had targeted this stage with Matthews and so they asked Christian Meier to keep the pace high.

Meier in control

The Canadian let the peloton all the way to the 5km to go banner when he was overtaken by Popovych Cameron Wurf (Cannondale) was the next to string out the peloton but when they hit the final climb, it was Astana who took control.

Jakob Fuglsang, Janez Brajkovic and Paolo Tiralongo set a fast pace on the lower slopes until Rafael Valls (Vacansoleil) took over the pace-setting duties to prepare a win for teammate Grega Bole. This was when Flecha launched his second attack of the day and he built up a sizeable gap.

Movistar was quick to react, asking Herrada to keep the Spaniard at bay. Moments later, Moreno set off and he put daylight between himself and the peloton. He overtook Flecha while Cancellara launched his own attack. The Swiss did his best to take the win but ultimately ran out of metres, allowing Moreno to take a big stage win in his home race.

Result:

1. Daniel Moreno 4.37.47

2. Fabian Cancellara

3. Michael Matthews

4. Gianni Meersman

5. Bauke Mollema

6. Edvald Boasson Hagen

7. Rinaldo Nocentini

8. Warren Barguil

9. Sergio Henao

10. Nicolas Roche

General classification:

1. Vincenzo Nibali 14.15.30

2. Chris Horner +0.03

3. Nicolas Roche +0.08

4. Haimar Zubeldia +0.16

5. Alejandro Valverde +0.21

6. Robert Kiserlovski +0.25

7. Rigoberto Uran +0.28

8. Daniel Moreno +0.31

9. Rafal Majka +0.38

10. Roman Kreuziger +0.42

Points classification:

1. Daniel Moreno 48

2. Nicolas Roche 38

3. Alejandro Valverde 37

4. Bauke Mollema 29

5. Chris Horner 28

Mountains classification:

1. Nicolas Roche 11

2. Daniel Moreno 6

3. Domenico Pozzovivo 4

4. Chris Horner 3

5. Nicolas Edet 3

Combination classification:

1. Nicolas Roche 6

2. Chris Horner 11

3. Daniel Moreno 11

4. Alejandro Valverde 15

5. Leopold König 32

Teams classification:

1. Radioshack 41.47.01

2. Saxo-Tinkoff +0.05

3. Belkin +1.10

4. NetApp-Endura +1.25

5. Movistar +1.28