Chris Froome showed that he has arrived at the Vuelta a Espana to win the race when he rode attentively to pick up 2 bonus seconds on the windy fifth stage of the race. The Brit and his Sky team showed great attentiveness and were never under pressure when Tinkoff-Saxo attacked in the crosswinds.

Chris Froome continued his rise up the general classification at the Vuelta a Espana after a show of intent on stage five.

The Brit was never outside the leading positions on the 180-kilometre run into Ronda and was protected by his team-mates, who continued their commitment to keeping their team leader up front and out of trouble.

As the peloton prepared for the second intermediate sprint in Campillos, it was Team Sky who surprised their rivals, seizing the initiative as Froome jumped out to claim two bonus seconds. Froome was able to distance the interested sprinters with the help of Christian Knees and climbed higher on the leaderboard to 13th.

Again attentive at the finish, Froome and Pete Kennaugh helped lead in the main group, five seconds back on the sprinters who contested the victory on the slightly uphill finish.

John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) bagged his second win of the race, edging out Nacer Bouhanni after the FDJ.fr rider ran out of space during a frantic run-in.

Finishing among the sprinters, the time gap allowed Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) to push his race lead out to 13 seconds, with Froome now 38 back as the race gets set to begin a phase of climbing.

“Any opportunity to make up some time is worth a try;" Froome said. "There was only one rider away at the second intermediate sprint so I attacked with my team-mates Christian Knees to take two seconds bonus. It’s not much but it can be useful.

"Tomorrow it’s the first mountain stage with two very difficult climbs. It’ll be a test for myself and my adversaries. Purito looks like he’s in a very good condition. Contador and Quintana too but I wouldn’t be surprised to see many other riders perform tomorrow.”

"The guys did a good job today," confirmed Sports Director Dario Cioni. "We wanted to be at the front all day as you never know what can happen. As it turned out it worked to our favour as most of the team were towards the front when Saxo made their move - so we had no trouble when it split apart.

"Froomey was able to take a couple of bonus seconds too which was great to see. We knew there was an opportunity with the small break and thought 'why not'. We gave it a go and it paid off.

"Tomorrow the climbs begin and certainly we should learn a bit more about the climbing ability of the contenders. There won't be anywhere to hide which will make it very interesting."