Photos: GettySport

Bart Lemmen stormed to an impressive fourth place in the closing time trial of O Gran Camiño with only Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard, former world TT champion Rohan Dennis (both Jumbo-Visma) and Will Barta (Movistar Team), finishing ahead of the 27-year-old. 

It was a double delight for the team because having raced aggressively all week, Sebastian Schönberger proved the most combative in the race, winning the overall of the points jersey classification with a total of 131 and finishing second in the KOM standings.

The rolling nature of the 18.1-kilometer course from Novo Milladoiro to Santiago de Compostela suited the qualities of much of the Human Powered Health team with Chad Haga finishing eleventh. 

“I’m really stoked to get such a result in a professional bike race,” Lemmen said afterward, noting that only 20 months have passed since his first pro event. “I’m super happy to give something back to the team after they’ve put so much trust in me.”

Both team trainer Jelmer Nuijten and nutritionist Mathias Fluit were on the ground all week in Spain providing their expert hand in both fueling and movement. On TT day, Nutjen provided each rider with a personal plan that went into the minutest of details to have a positive effect on race performance… even when to go to the toilet.

The technical course suited Lemmen who studied the parcours on the analysis website Veloviewer and then again in the pre-race recon to recognize the tricky corners.

“My pacing strategy, which was basically all out on the climbs and easy in the decents,” he explains jovialy.  

Gage Hecht and Embret Svestad-Bårdseng also had impressive rides with both finishing inside the top 25 on this, the final day of the Spanish stage race.

 

Green Machine

Elsewhere, Schönberger guided his TT bike home to make sure of overall victory in the points standings. 

The 28-year-old’s attacking style was rewarded with the green jersey at the end of a week where the Austrian raced a total of 360 kilometers in the breakaway. 

“This is my style of racing, I will keep on going on like this and the results will keep coming,” he said afterward. “Now I am totally a Human Powered Health rider and that’s really cool. I really enjoy the atmosphere. Riders are great, the staff is perfect and I’m happy.”

The double result brings a close to an extraordinary week in Galicia with much of the route being impacted by heavy snowfall. 

The squad will now warm up and refocus on the rest of the spring block in Northern continental Europe. 

O Gran Camiño stage 4 results
1 VINGEGAARD Jonas – Jumbo-Visma 0:23:47
2 DENNIS Rohan – Jumbo-Visma 0:35
3 BARTA Will – Movistar Team 0:59
4 LEMMEN Bart – Human Powered Health 1:05
5 HERRADA Jesús – Cofidis 1:06
6 CANAL Carlos – Euskatel – Euskadi 1:22
7 WALKER Max – Trinity Racing 1:23
8 VALTER Attila – Jumbo-Visma 1:24
9 AZPARREN Xabier Mikel – Euskatel – Euskadi 1:28
10 DE LA CRUZ David – Astana Qazaqstan Team 1:30
11 HAGA Chad – Human Powered Health 1:31

Points jersey standings after four stages
1 SCHÖNBERGER Sebastian – Human Powered Health 131 pts
2 VINGEGAARD Jonas – Jumbo-Visma 80
3 ROPERO Alejandro – Electro Hiper Europa 60
4 GUERREIRO Ruben – Movistar Team 50
5 HERRADA Jesús – Cofidis 36