Valverde takes fourth stage of Tour of the Basque Country

MADRID - Spain's Alejandro Valverde, of the Baleares team, won the fourth stage of the Tour of the Basque Country on Thursday, a 167km ride between Vitoria and Alsasua.
Compatriot and teammate Aitor Osa stayed in charge of the overall standings.
It was Valverde's second successive stage win and, just like Wednesday, he took control in a thrilling sprint finish to win in a time of 4hr 12min 04sec ahead of Italy's Danilo Di Luca and Spain's Miguel Angel Perdiguero.
Five kilometres from the end of the stage Alexandre Vinokourov made an escape but the teams' leading sprinters soon reeled him back in.
Despite finishing 11th on the stage, Osa has a two second lead over Di Luca and Patrice Halgand of France.
The Tour of the Basque Country comes to end on Friday with the fifth and final stage in two parts - a 93km run from Alsasua and Arantzatzu and a time trial over 9.3km around Onati in the afternoon.

04/07/2005 18:27 GMT