Tejay van Garderen takes Ruta del Sol lead with stage four TT win

Tejay van Garderen took the overall lead of the Ruta del Sol in Spain by winning stage four's individual time trial.

The BMC Racing rider stopped the clock on a rolling, 21km course starting and ending in Alhaurin de la Torre in 27min 5sec, which was two seconds faster than runner-up Wilco Kelderman (LottoNL-Jumbo) and seven seconds quicker than third-placed Jerome Coppel (IAM Cycling).

Three-time race winner Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) finished 22 seconds down in eighth place, while Team Sky's Wout Poels was 20 seconds back in sixth.

Previous race leader Ben Swift (Team Sky) finished a minute down on Van Garderen and has dropped out of overall contention.

Van Garderen said: "It's great to get the first victory of the season early. Now we can take a more relaxed approach going forward. It's a big confidence boost, but we definitely have our minds set on tomorrow. We're going to have a tough challenge, but we're excited."

Van Garderen will now look to defend his lead on Sunday's 164.2km final stage, which ends with a summit finish on Penas Blancas.

Stage four result

1 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing, 27:05

2 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, +2sec

3 Jerome Coppel (Fra) IAM Cycling, +7

4 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing, +15

5 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Direct Energie, +17

General classification

1 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing

2 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, +2sec

3 Jerome Coppel (Fra) IAM Cycling, +7

4 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing, +15

5 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Direct Energie, +17