José González (Venezuela-País Futuro-Finaarroz) defeated Marlon Garzón (Iowa Latino Edasa) on the edge of the finish line to win the queen stage, which had a distance of 118 kilometers and covered the Santo Domingo-Circunvalación-Autopista Duarte-Rancho Arriba stretch, and became the leader of the Vuelta Ciclística Independencia Nacional, which saw Hernán Gómez (Herrera Sport Hino) drop to 10th place in the overall individual leadership.
Gómez led the first three days of the Independencia tour, which began on Monday, but in this fourth stage of the tour, marked by the mountains, he dropped to one minute and 46 seconds behind the new yellow jersey wearer, held by González.
With a 2 hours:40: minutes:25 seconds ride, Gonzalez climbed up to Rancho Arriba, south of the Dominican capital, an area 699 meters above sea level and belonging to the province of San Jose de Ocoa. The Venezuelan won over the Colombian Garzón, who crossed with the same time, but was displaced when both were thrown over the finish line.
Gonzalez now leads the overall with a time of 10:40:47, five seconds behind the Colombian Garzon who also climbed in the overall individual classification after being located in 34th place, 53 seconds behind the leader, who was until yesterday the Colombian Gomez.
Gómez was not the best climber and is now down to 10th place at one minute and 46 seconds. With that time and with only three stages to go, it will be difficult for him to take the jersey he held until Wednesday.
The champion of the last edition of the Vuelta, the Venezuelan Luis Mora (Inteja-IMCA) crossed third at four seconds. The Colombian David Gonzalez, reinforcement of Team Acisa Santiago, came in fourth at five seconds behind in this close dispute on the mountain.
With the absence of Dominicans Ismael Sanchez and Augusto Sanchez, the Dominican Republic saw its best riders displaced beyond tenth place overall.