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Vuelta a Espana 2018: Stage 5

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The peloton is ine neutralised zone in Granada, with the race due to hit kilometre zero at 11:56 local time. Today's stage is described by the race organisation as 'mid mountain,' though the Vuelta's own difficulty scale differs from just about every other race, as Sunday's 'flat' (seriously) stage to Caminito del Rey testified. The presence of the Alto el Marchal 30km from the line should ensure that the peloton is whittled down significantly ahead of the finish in Roquetas de Mar this afternoon.

In keeping with the Vuelta's time in Andalucia thus far, there is scarcely a metre of flat on today's stage, as the race tackles rugged and rolling roads all day long. There are two classified climbs, the category 3 Alto de Orgiva after 55km, and the category 2 Alto El Marchal (10.8km at 4.1%), the summit of which comes with 26km remaining.

Precisely two minutes separate the top 20 on GC after the opening four stages. Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) sets out in red once again today, and the overall picture is as follows:

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Away from the Vuelta, Mark Cavendish has been diagnosed with Epstein Barr virus for the second time in as many years and will not race for the foreseeable future. "This season I’ve not felt physically myself and despite showing good numbers on the bike I have felt that there’s been something not right,” Cavendish said. “Given this and on the back of these medical results, I’m glad to now finally have some clarity as to why I haven’t been able to perform at my optimum level during this time." Read more here.

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Alexandre Geniez (AG2R La Mondiale) is attempting to bridge across to De Gendt, though both riders are dangling just ahead of the peloton for the time being.

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Yesterday, the Sky team of race leader Michal Kwiatkowski allowed the break to clear early and yielded considerable latitude. Ben King (Dimension Data) took full advantage to claim the biggest win of his career on the Puerto de Alfacar. "It was part of the plan to be in the break. It was a big move with a lot of strong riders. We weren't going to be there just to be on TV," King said afterwards. Alasdair Fotheringham has the full story here.

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The race has reached the category 3 Alto de Orgiva (4km at 7%), and Stéphane Rossetto (Cofidis) has opened a small gap over the bunch.  A dozen or so riders are chasing just behind him.

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Rossetto, De Tier and Conti have been joined by Alessandro De Marchi (BMC), Lukas Pöstlberger (Bora), Maxime Monfort (Lotto Soudal) and Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ), and there are more riders trying to forge across. The gaps are still very small, mind.

The race is quite fractured at the moment as riders are still trying to battle their way across the small gap to Rossetto and the leaders. 

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This break isn't entirely cohesive, as Postlberger, Clarke and Mollema briefly forge ahead, but their advantage over the peloton continues to grow. 

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Rossetto and De Marchi are being chased by 19 of their breakaway companions. Trentin, Postlberger, Mendes and Pellizotti have been dropped and are 1:20 down.

There isn't a huge amount of cohesion in the chasing group, and Valerio Conti seems to have had enough of it. The Italian presses on in lone pursuit of De Marchi and Rosetto.

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Rossetto has dropped back to the chasing group, which now numbers 22 riders. Pellizzotti fought his way back up to them, while Trentin and Postlberger have been caught by the main peloton.

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Jai Hindley of Sunweb is in the chasing group. The Australian is making his Grand Tour debut at this Vuelta. The neo-professional has followed a sensible programme of roughly a stage race per month - with a break in July - this year, with 11th at the Tour of Slovenia his best result. "I love to win bike races, but for the first few years it's all just about the development side of things and learning as much as I can," Hindley told us at the start of the year. "I've got a lot to learn. I've really got to find my place in pro peloton first." Hindley turned pro with Sunweb after spending 2017 with the Mitchelton-Scott under-23 team. Read the full story here.

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On the lower slopes of the climb, Clarke, Mollema and De Marchi have a lead of 1:45 over Molard, Conti, Villella, Kochetkov, De Tier, Pellizotti, Iturria, Amador and Geniez. The peloton is at 5:55.

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The Molard group keeps fragmenting and reforming, but it is notable that Molard is to the fore every time there is an acceleration. They trail the three leaders by 1:36 with 8.5km of climbing still to go.

Davide Villella (Astana) attacks. De Tier and Molard give chase. The rest of the chasing group appears to be distanced.

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Mollema, De Marchi and Clarke are a little under 6km from the summit of Alto El Marchal with a lead of 57 seconds over Villella. Molard and De Tier are a little further back, with the remnants of the break scattered further down the mountain. Sky lead the peloton, which is at 6 minutes and on the lower slopes of the climb.

Kwiatkowski has a lead of just 7 seconds over Emmanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and 10 over Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), and Sky will be wary of attacks on his red jersey on this climb. There is a rapid descent and short, flat run-in over the other side.

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Molard and De Tier have managed to join up with Villella, and this trio is 50 seconds down on Clarke and De Marchi.

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Back in the main peloton, Team Sky are controlling affairs with a brisk tempo, and there is no inkling of an attack on Kwiatkowski's red jersey at this juncture.

Molard, of course, is still the virtual red jersey, as his three-man move has a lead of 5 minutes over the main peloton, but one would expect the pace to pick up in the bunch near the summit.

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In the virtual GC, Molard has 1:43 in hand on Kwiatkowski. The Frenchman is riding wholeheartedly on the descent off El Marchal and is giving himself a fighting chance of moving into the red jersey this evening.

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There were no frissons in the main peloton on El Marchal. Team Sky lead the bunch  over the top, 6 minutes down on Mollema, De Marchi and Clarke.

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The descent is growing ever shallower, and the road flattens out completely in the final 6km, which should hand an advantage to the chasing peloton as Sky look to recoup some ground on Molard.

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This game of cat and mouse has seen the break's lead drop to 32 seconds, as Molard, De Tier and Villella remain fully committed to their chase.

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De Marchi leads into the final kilometre with Clarke and Mollema on his wheel...

De Marchi is going to be forced to lead out the sprint. The Molard group is close but won't catch them...

De Marchi leads out the sprint, but Clarke moves up and comes around him...

Simon Clarke (EF-Drapac) wins stage 5 of the Vuelta a Espana.

Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) takes second in the sprint, Alessandro De Marchi (BMC) is third.

The Molard group comes in on their coattails. Sky have knocked off their pace in the main peloton, and it looks as though the Frenchman will take over the red jersey...

Davide Villella (Astana) was 4th on the stage, just 8 seconds down on Clarke. Floris De Tier (LottoNL-Jumbo) was 5th and Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ) 6th.

Sky set a steady pace in the closing kilometres as the clock ticks towards 3:47. Molard will take the red jersey from Kwiatkowski.

Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ) is the new leader of the Vuelta a Espana.

Result:

The peloton comes in 4:55 down, meaning that Molard will carry a lead of more than a minute into stage 6.

General classification after stage 5:

General classification after stage 5:

This is the second Vuelta stage win of Simon Clarke's career after his victory ahead of Tony Martin at the summit finish at Valdezcaray in 2012. 

Simon Clarke reacts to his victory: “It's just amazing. I worked so hard since I last won a stage here, and I just couldn't repeat it. It's taken me so long to get back there and have my stars aligned. Even today I wasn't sure it was possible. I knew I had good legs, but when you have a breakaway with so many riders, the cooperation is never very good. As we saw, the winning move went on the descent. It was a tricky one to pick. I knew I had good legs and I just had to pray that the moves I was doing were the right ones.

The 28-year-old Molard scored the biggest win of his career this spring when he claimed stage 6 of Paris-Nice in Vence, ahead of Tim Wellens and Julian Alaphilippe. FDJ last held the overall lead in 2005, when Brad McGee wore the then-golden jersey for four days.

Result:

General classification after stage 5:

Thanks for joining our live coverage of the Vuelta a Espana on Cyclingnews. A full report, results and pictures are here, and Alasdair Fotheringham will have all the news and reaction from Roquetas de Mar.

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