Joaquim Rodriguez got safely through a potentially dangerous day when his Katusha team escorted him through the windy stage 5. With 7 riders in the front group, the Russian team played with the muscles on the eve of the first queen stage.

There was no relief from the suffocating heat Wednesday at la Vuelta a España as temperatures soared again to the 42ºC mark and stayed there for much of the ride. Stage 5 at 180 km began in Priego de Cordoba and ended in Ronda. The profile was a day of small up and down climbs before the category 3 rise near the end, but a group sprint came in the finale with John Degenkolb winning for the second day in a row.

"One more hot stage today, but in general we did not have any problems. The only tricky moment was in the final part of the race, maybe with 40 km to go, when on the crosswinds caused the peloton to split in few parts, and Tinkoff-Saxo pushed hard in front. But Joaquim Rodriguez and some other guys stayed in front in that time, so we controlled the situation.

"In the final it was a sprint, so for us it was important just to finish among the leaders and we did that.  Tomorrow is the first real uphill finish, so we will see what happens," said team director José Azevedo.

Everything should change for the GC on Thursday’s stage 6 as the 2014 Vuelta a España sees the first summit finish. The stage begins in Benalmádena and ends atop the 4.6 km climb to La Zubia that sees maximum gradients of 13%. The stage is 167.7 km in length.