21-year-old Caleb Ewan has won stage five of the 2015 Vuelta a Espana in his debut season and Grand Tour.

Ewan capitalised on a perfect lead out by his ORICA-GreenEDGEteammates Mitch Docker, Mathew Hayman and Jens Keukeleireon what was tough uphill drag to the finish line.

In the process, the neo-pro got the better of ten-time Grand Tour stage winner John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) and four-time Tour de France stage winner Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo).

“This is by far the happiest day in my career,” Ewan said. “To beat some of the best sprinters in the world, especially guys like Sagan and Degenkolb on an uphill finish, it really means a lot to me.

“It’s an honour to race with those guys and to beat them is just unreal for me.

“It was a super tough finish, but my teammates did an awesome job of getting me to the bottom in front position. I even had time to stop back a few spots and that always makes it easier than trying to move up. If it wasn’t for them, there is no way I could have won today.

“It was super tough up there. I didn’t realise it was going to be so hard but my team put me in a perfect position coming into the climb and I started the climb at front. My teammate went to the front but I knew it was a little early, so I dropped back a few spots onto Degenkolb’s wheel. He went at probably the right time but I waited and waited, and then got over him on the last steep bit. It turned out perfect.

“It’s an incredible feeling. This is by far the biggest victory of my career. When I crossed the line there was so much emotion, I was so happy. It means a lot to me to beat two of the best sprinters in the world and that finish really suited them and they’re strong. I knew it would be tough to beat them but I felt good and my team did an awesome job and delivered me perfectly.” 

Asked if he thought he could win in his first Grand Tour, the Australian credited the confidence the team have entrusted in him.

“To be honest I didn’t know what to expect,” Ewan said. “I hadn’t won a WorldTour race to start with so I always knew it was going to be pretty tough.

“But my team believed in me and at the end there when they commit 100% for you, you start to believe in yourself as well.

“This was probably the last stage I could go for because I’m not planning on going through the whole Tour. There was a fair bit of pressure because I knew it was my last opportunity but that made me even more determined to do it.

"Michael [Matthews] has won a lot of Grand Tour stages since his first Vuelta win so it would be an honour to be following on his footsteps and doing kind of what he's done. Hopefully this will be the first one of many in my career, too. It feels very special and follow in his footsteps is a pretty good thing for me.

"I thought it was going to very hard to beat those guys on a finish like that, but I was so perfectly placed I didn't have to make up any spaces going up through the peloton on the climb and they probably did. That extra effort would have really cost you energy."

“It’s a great win, especially for Caleb, he’s brand new at Grand Tours and he’s already showed he’s ready for next step. It’s awesome," Docker said.

"At the start of the Vuelta, reading the roadbook with him, we decided that if Caleb had a chance to win in his first Grand Tour, it would be here in Alcala de Guadaira," sports director Julian Dean said. "His team-mates made a fantastic job and his talent did the rest. He still has a lot of work to do but to be honest nobody, including himself, knows how far he can go and to which sprinter he can be compared. One thing we know now is that he is made for hilly sprints against the best."

“There two stages for him here at the Vuelta and he wanted to make amends for missing out the other day. The last part of the stage was very hard but the final was very smooth after some great work for the team. We’ll have lots of champagne tonight!”

Sport director Neil Stephens was thrilled by the efforts of his young charge.

“The performance was unbelievable stuff,” Stephens said. “But what is also a factor is what’s gone on the past five days.

“We have had a great leader of the race and 90% of the thought had gone into Esteban Chaves so Caleb had to take a step back as plan B.

“He is 21 years of age. He dealt with that like a champion and then when he had is one chance, he delivered.”

Unfortunately, the pace in the final saw Colombian Chaves relinquish the red leader’s jersey by just one second to Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin).

With a long way still to go before Madrid and some favourable stages to come, Stephens said Chaves is still in a very strong position.

“We talked this morning about the possibility in the next couple of days to lose the jersey,” Stephens said.

“We probably didn’t think it would happen today, but we knew we didn’t want to obsess over the jersey just to keep it for an extra day when we have more goals to achieve across the three weeks.

“It’s been great to have the jersey, we might get it back we might not, but we aren’t done yet.”

"I couldn't see what happened to him, I was at the front of the bunch but he's in great form and I've no doubt he'll be able to fight for getting the red jersey again in the next few days," Ewan said about Chaves.

“We won with Caleb. Its amazing how the team worked, it was wonderful," Chaves said. "In the end, I lost contact in a roundabout and there were little gaps in the finish because it was quite steep and we lost the red jersey for one second. I'm relaxed and enjoying Caleb´s triumph. In the beginning he suffered a lot and now he has won. The heat is a key factor. Each day is hotter. We began with 28-30 degrees and now it was 36 today.”