After the abandonment by David Boucher, the field of the Vuelta was left with 196 riders and no Point d’Appui. After the fourth stage, Pavel Brutt of Katusha and Denys Kostyuk of Lampre, finished as Les Cuspides in the general classification. They finished more than 15 minutes behind the leader, Joaquim Rodriguez, also of Katusha.

Brutt was joined by another Katusha rider, Gatis Smukulis, as Les Cuspides for the stage.

A crash with about 30 kilometers to go threw the race into disorder. Philippe Gilbert, who held the Point d’Appui after Stage 3, fell nearly 40 places on the day. Unsurprisingly though, Markel Irizar, who won the Point d’Appui in the 2011 Tour de France as well as one stage in the 2011 Vuelta, has managed to stay within six places of the fulcrum.

The new Lanterne Rouge of the Vuelta is Martijn Maaskant of Garmin-Sharp. He’s more than 39 minutes behind the leader.