Although he didn’t win yesterday’s gruelling stage at the Tirreno-Adriatico, Joaquím Rodriguez gave another splendid performance as the climbing got very tough when the time came to decide the outcome of the stage.

The fifth stage was characterized by many stretches along its course; the riders passed three times through the demanding climbing of Porto Sant’Elpidio, which includes steep sections of up to 30 % gradient. In fact, this part represented the crucial moment of the stage: with 16 km to go, Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and Peter Sagan (Cannondale) attacked, reached and eventually dropped the last man of the breakaway, Benat Intxausti (Movistar).

Difficult to maintain place on podium

Meanwhile, from behind, Rodriguez took advantage of his great shape and, with an irresistible attack, he joined the duo ahead. The three men managed to unite, and thanks to this they gained a good gap of 44” over the first chasing group with Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) and 50” over the race leader Chris Froome (Sky).

In the final sprint, Sagan was the fastest, followed by Nibali and Rodriguez. Thanks to this performance, Rodriguez is now third on general classification 37” new race leader Nibali and 3” behind Froome in second position.

After the stage, Rodriguez joined other riders in commenting on the difficulties of a hard if spectacular day and looked toward the individual time trial with ambitions of maintaining his current place on the podium even though he realizes it will be difficult.

“It was a really hard stage, also because of the bad weather conditions,” said the Spanish rider, “but I think it was very spectacular and people will remember what happened today for a long time. I felt in a great shape in the final part, and once I managed to join Nibali and Sagan, I tried to gain as much time as possible in order to improve my general classification. Now I'll do my best to keep this podium place, even if I know it will be very hard".