Rodriguez on the double

Arrate - Spain's Joaquim Rodriguez has claimed his second stage victory in as many days at the Tour of the Basque Country on Thursday as Colombia's Sergio Henao maintained the overall lead.

Just as in winning on Wednesday, Rodriguez had the stronger final kick after a series of challenging climbs to take the 162.2km fourth stage from Zumarraga to Arrate ahead of Dutch rider Bauke Mollema and Britain's Simon Yates in a time of 4hr 05min 10sec.

Henao was fifth with compatriot Nairo Quintana in seventh in the same time to ensure they and Rodriguez remain tied together in the general classification with Henao ahead on stage placings.

However, Polish world champion Michal Kwiatowski lost more time on the leaders as he was 23 seconds back and now trails by 30 seconds overall.

The favourites stayed grouped together in the peloton for the majority of the day as Germany's Tony Martin and American Tom Danielson made the pace in a two-man breakaway.

They were eventually caught on the final category one climb up the Alto de Uzartza and Henao was the first of the leaders to attack with just under five kilometres to go.

Rodriguez and Quintana reacted quickly to reign in the Sky rider, but despite an impressive dash to the line from Rodriguez he couldn't put any time between himself in the small chasing pack to leave the general classification intriguingly poised with two stages to go.

A third consecutive mountain stage on Friday takes the riders 155.5km from Eibar to Aia before a 18.3km time trial to end the race on Saturday.

1. Joaquim Rodriguez (ESP/KAT) 4hr 05min 10sec, 2. Bauke Mollema (NED/TFR) at same time, 3. Simon Yates (GBR/OGE) s.t., 4. Ion Izagirre (ESP/MOV) s.t., 5. Sergio Henao (COL/SKY) s.t., 6. Michele Scarponi (ITA/AST) s.t., 7. Nairo Quintana (COL/MOV) s.t, 8. Ilnur Zakarin (RUS/KAT) s.t., 9. Rui Costa (POR/LAM) s.t., 10. Thibaut Pinot (FRA/FDJ) s.t.

Selected others:

13. Michal Kwiatkowski (POL/EQS) 0:23, 15. Jean-Christophe Peraud (FRA/ALM) s.t.

Overall

1. Sergio Henao (COL/SKY) 17hr 13min 51sec, 2. Joaquim Rodriguez (ESP/KAT) at same time, 3. Nairo Quintana (COL/MOV) s.t, 4. Michele Scarponi (ITA/AST) 0:07, 5. Bauke Mollema (NED/TFR) 0:10, 6. Ilnur Zakarin (RUS/KAT) s.t., 7. Tejay Van Garderen (USA/BMC) s.t., 8. Ion Izagirre (ESP/MOV) s.t, 9. Simon Yates (GBR/OGE) s.t., 10. Simon Spilak (SLV/KAT) s.t.

Selected others:

11. Thibaut Pinot (FRA/FDJ) 0:18, 13. Michal Kwiatkowski (POL/EQS) 0:30, 16. Jean-Christophe Peraud (FRA/ALM) 1:21