Gaviria takes stage, race lead, as Bennett distanced in Argentina | Video | Sticky Bottle

*Sam Bennett and his team endured a much harder day in Argentina on stage 4, with the Irishman losing the white jersey of race leader*

Fernando Gaviria (Movistar Team) won stage 4 at Vuelta a San Juan in Argentina, with the Colombian also taking the race lead from Sam Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) after the Irishman was distanced on the hillier terrain.

Bennett, who was leading the race since winning the opening stage on Sunday, was a victim of the climbing in the first half of he stage. The road kicked up for 25km before a brief descent followed by the 7km Gruta Virgen de Andacollo, reaching 2,200m and crested 87km into the 196km stage.

Bennett, unsurprisingly, went out of the back of the peloton on the climb. His biggest sprint rival, Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal-QuickStep), was also out the back, resulting in Movistar Team and TotalEnergies combining to drive the pace for Gaviria and Peter Sagan.

And that pace meant there was no major regrouping after the big climb, and no return for Bennett and Jakobsen. However, Ryan Mullen managed to get into the 16-rider early breakaway, which had gained about seven minutes by the time the day's main climbing began. Though Mullen was caught by the reduced peloton, he stayed in that group in a support role for Bora-hansgrohe's general classification man Sergio Higuita.

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The reduced peloton gradually reeled in the last of the breakaway men - including Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) - who were caught with over an hour of racing remaining. That resulted in a bunch of some 50 riders going to the finish intact. On the run in to the line, Mullen crashed in the last 1km. And though he lost some skin, his team has reported no broken bones or serious injury, meaning he can continue in the race as he finished the stage.

With about 400m to go Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) went for a long one in a bid to win the stage. However, Gaviria immediately responded, closing a sizeable gap to the Italian before passing him to win, with Sagan coming through for 2nd and a fading Ganna holding on for 3rd place.

The Bennett group finished 11:50 down on the stage winner, meaning the Irishman's time in the race lead is over. Gaviria takes that white jersey, with Sagan 2nd overall at 10 seconds and Juan Pablo Dotti (Sindicato de Empleados Públicos of San Juan) in 3rd place at 13 seconds.

After the rest day today, Thursday, the race heads to the summit finish of Alto Colorado on Friday's stage 5, where the general classification men were expected to dominate. The event then concludes at the weekend with two stages that may result in bunch sprints, and two more chances for Bennett to hunt for victories.