Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEDGE) made up for the disappointment from stage 3 when he took a very impressive victory in the uphill sprint on the fifth stage of the Vuelta a Espana. Having been kept in position by his strong team, he moved onto John Degenkolb’s (Giant-Alpecin) wheel in the finale before he came around the German to take the biggest victory of his career. A split in the finale meant that Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) takes the red leader’s jersey.

Going into the Vuelta a Espana, Caleb Ewan did nothing to hide that he wanted to win a stage in his grand tour debut. However, his Orica-GreenEDGE team were keen not to put any pressure on him and said that they had no expectations at all for the talented sprinter.

Nonetheless, Ewan’s competitive mindset meant that he was left extremely frustrated when he missed out the sprint opportunity in stage 3 which was the first chance for the fast riders. A tough category 1 climb at the midpoint was too much for the grand tour debutant who arrived at the finish more than 15 minutes too late.

Only set to do around 10 days of the race, Ewan knew that his only chance to sprint could come in today’s fifth stage which was one of the flattest of the entire race. An uphill finishing straight threatened to ruin the party but the Australian proved his huge potential by overcoming the obstacle and taking the win.

Everything was back together with 9km to go when Iljo Keisse (Etixx-QuickStep) was brought back as the final survivor of an early three-rider break. At that point, it was a huge fight for position but it was the Tinkoff-Saxo team that had won the battle. Jay McCarthy, Pawel Poljanski, Jesper Hansen and Pavel Brutt all took some huge turns to make sure that Peter Sagan was up there.

LottoNL-Jumbo briefly took over but it was MTN-Qhubeka that took over as they approached a narrow road. Jay Thomson, Jaco Venter and Kristian Sbaragli rode on the front for more than a kilometre while the rest of the lead-outs waited a bit further back.

Venter took over and managed to hold off Tinkoff-Saxo and Giant-Alpecin while riders started to get dropped due to the frantic pace. Then it was Tinkoff-Saxo who led McCarthy, Maciej Bodnar, Daniele Bennati and Sagan into the first positions.

That’s when Orica-GreenEDGE showed their intention as they hit the front with Mathew Hayman, Mitchell Docker and Ewan. They fought hard against the Giant train of Luka Mezgec, Koen De Kort and Degenkolb and came out on top as Hayman rode on the front for a long time.

Jens Keukeleire came from behind to take over from Hayman and led the peloton under the flamme rouge where the road started to rise. That’s when Tinkoff-Saxo again took over as Bennati, Sagan and Maximilano Richeze (Lampre-Merida) took over, with Ewan slotting into fourth.

Docker did a great work to stay up there before doing a lead-out but he was unable to maintain the speed when De Kort and Degenkolb sprinted up next to him. However, Ewan was quick to react and moved onto the German’s wheel, with Sagan slotting into fourth.

As soon as they had passed Docker, Degenkolb launched his sprint but Ewan stayed glued to his wheel. As soon as the German started to fade, he easily passed him and took a very convincing win while Sagan could do nothing more than stay in third.

Despite the win, it was a bittersweet day for Orica-GreenEDGE as a 6-second split in the finale meant that Esteban Chaves lost the leader’s jersey. Tom Dumoulin moves into red with a 1-second advantage over the Colombian.

He won’t get an easy jersey defence though as stage 6 offers another uphill finish. After a mostly flat day, the riders will tackle two category 3 climbs in the finale, with the final ascent averaging 6.3% over 3.3km and leading to the finish line

One for the sprinters

After yesterday’s tough stage, the sprinters were expected to be back in the mix on stage five which brought the riders over 167.3km from Rota to Alcala de Guadaira. There were no categorized climbs on the menu in one of the flattest stages of the race but the final 800m were uphill at around 5%.

As usual it was hot when the riders gathered for the start. All 191 riders who finished yesterday were present when they rolled out for their neutral ride.

Grmay takes off

Right from the gun, Tsgabu Grmay (Lampre-Merida) attacked and he was probably surprised to learn that nobody joined him. At the 4km mark, he was already 1.04 ahead and it even went out to 2 minutes before the peloton accelerated.

With the gap down to 55 seconds, Iljo Keisse (Etixx-QuickStep) and Antoine Duchesne (Europcar) bridged across and the peloton again slowed down. At the 30km mark, they had already extended their advantage to 4.14 and it went out to 7 minutes before Giant-Alpecin started to chase.

Giant-Alpecin take control

The pace was not fast so Carlos Barbero (Caja Rural) and Andrew Talansky (Cannondale) could easily rejoin the peloton after mechanicals. Meanwhile, Giant-Alpecin slowly brought the gap down to 5.45 when they entered the final 100km.

Tom Stamsnijder and Thierry Hupond traded pulls on the front and kept the gap between 5.00 and 5.30 for a while. With 65km to go, they got some help from Cofidis as Stephane Rossetto joined forces with the two Giant riders and they started to bring the gap down.

Caja Rural start to chase

With 55km to go, the gap was 4.20 and there was no big stress in the peloton. Hence, it was easy for Sky to bring Chris Froome back to the front when the Sky leader had a mechanical.

The gap continued to come down and so it was only 3.20 when they entered the final 45km. Ten kilometres later Hupond, Stamsnijder and Rossetto had brought it down to 2.25 and now they were even getting some help from the Caja Rural pair of Omar Fraile and Ametx Txurruka.

Frail quickly ended his work but the rest of the workers brought the gap down to 2.15 with 30km to go. Here the situation stabilized as the escapees reacted strongly.

Grmay refuses to work

Unfortunately, their cooperation ended with 21km to go when Grmay refused to take more turns. Keisse and the Ethiopian argued heavily which allowed Duchesne to take off. Keisse tried to drop Grmay before he brought the trio back together.

The confusion had brought the gap down to 1.45 when Grmay again started to work. However, there was no cohesion and so Duchesne tried to attack. However, it was the counterattack from Keisse that worked and the Belgian immediately got a big gap and rolled across the line to win the intermediate sprint.

Keisse is caught

In the peloton, Zico Waeytens was now the only rider on the front, setting the tempo for Giant-Alpecin but all the big teams were looming just behind. With 13km to go, Tinkoff-Saxo lined out their team on the front, with Poljanski, Butt and Hansen all taking big turns.

The gap was now coming down quickly and was only 1.05 with 12km to go. At this point, Sky moved up next to Tinkoff-Saxo and they had reduced the gap to 15 second with 10km to go. Moments later, Keisse sat up to wait for the peloton and set the scene for the sprint finish.

Omar Fraile (Caja Rural) was the next rider to work his way back from a puncture while the peloton continued its steady comeback. Entering the final 85km, the gap was down to 5.05.