MADRID, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) won the fourth stage to go into the overall lead of the Itzulia cycle race on Thursday, thanks to a strong ride up the last climb of a leg-breaking 168.6-kilometer stage between Beasain and Markina-Xemein.

The Portuguese rider, who lost a chance to take Wednesday's stage after misjudging his way into a roundabout, was in no mood to waste a second chance and he won the stage by 28 seconds by his team-mate Isaac del Toro, while Max Schachmann (Soudal-Quick Step) was third across the line to take a four second time bonus.

That means Almeida leapfrogs Schachmann to take a 30-second lead in the overall standings, although Schachmann showed his courage to dig deep when he had looked to be struggling on the last climb.

The stage saw a high-quality breakaway with riders such as Marc Soler (UAE-Team Emirates) and Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) - who won a stage in the recent Volta a Catalunya, and the competitive climber Brenden Healy (EF Education).

The break was finally reeled in at the foot of the final Izua climb, which was 3.5 kilometers of road at an average gradient of 10.5 percent, but with ramps of up to 20 percent, forcing most of the riders to stand out of the saddle and grind their way up the hill.

Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) was an early leader on the climb, before Almeida began to find his rhythm and open a gap over three chasers including Wednesday's stage winner Alex Aranburu (Cofidis).

Almeida topped the climb with a 33-second lead over the chasing group and a 10-kilometer descent between him and the finish and as he hurled himself into he maintained his lead to the finish.

Friday sees the penultimate stage between Urduna and Gernika over 172.4 kilometers, which contains four third category climbs, but which once again is on terrain that offers little respite to the riders. Enditem

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