Ryder Hesjedal had gone into the Vuelta a Espana with big GC hopes but today he was dealt a heavy blow when he lost more than 3 minutes in the windy stage 5. His Garmin-Sharp team openly admits that the Canadian had been poorly positioned.

Ryder Hesjedal is often seen riding near the back of the peloton and today his approach to positioning was costly in stage 5 of the Vuelta a Espana. When Tinkoff-Saxo accelerated in the crosswinds, the Canadian was caught in the third group on the road and never rejoined the leaders, losing 3.14 to most of his GC rivals.

Fellow Garmin leader Dan Martin had also been caught out but found himself in the second group where his teammates worked hard to allow him to bridge the gap on the final climb. However, Hesjedal ended as the big loser on a day that also saw their teammate Andrew Talansky lose 3.46. The latter is less of a concern though as the American had not had any GC ambitions in the race.

“Mala suerte,” Garmin-Sharp sport director Bingen Fernández told VeloNews. “It was bad luck. Ryder was near the back of the peloton, and we needed to be up front. Tinkoff started pulling, and the group split up.

“We had to have a few riders to work for Dan, and Ryder. Ryder went full gas, but couldn’t get across. Ryder came here with big ambitions. We still have Dan. We’ll see.”