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Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana Stage 5 – Live coverage

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Hola and welcome to the Cyclingnews live coverage of stage 5 of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana. 

The final stage is the traditional flat ride to Valencia, where a sprint finish is expected. 

The stage has just started in Paterna and will end in the regional capital after 97km of racing.

It was another warm, sunny day in Spain as the race rolled out. 

Double stage winner Dylan Groenwegen is the big favourite to win today's expected sprint finish. 

We're waiting to see who attacks first on the stage after the roll-out.

Earlier today the women raced the Vuelta a la Comunidad Valenciana Féminas, with Italian national champion Marta Bastianelli (Alé BTC Ljubljana) taking the win. 

Yesterday Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) lived up to expectations, taking victory on the steep Sierra de Bernia climb on the queen stage of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana

Click here to read our full stage report and see our photo gallery of stage 4.

This is the top ten on GC. 

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Results
Pos.Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates 16:38:28
2Jack Haig (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:06
3Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Team Ineos
4Daniel Martin (Irl) Israel Start-Up Nation 0:00:13
5Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain McLaren 0:00:23
6Wouter Poels (Ned) Bahrain McLaren 0:00:25
7Ion Izaguirre Insausti (Spa) Astana Pro Team 0:00:32
8Ruben Fernandez (Spa) Fundacion-Orbea 0:00:49
9Oscar Rodriguez Garaicoechea (Spa) Astana Pro Team 0:01:11
10Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:14
11Gianni Moscon (Ita) Team Ineos 0:01:19
12Marc Soler (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:22
13James Knox (GBr) Deceuninck-Quickstep
14Jan Polanc (Slo) UAE Team Emirates 0:01:36
15Sander Armee (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:01:43

This is the roll out from the start.

From the Cyclingnews blimp we can see an attack by four riders but the peloton is chasing.

In other news, the Merksplas Superprestige races was cancelled due to Storm Ciara.

We have a break of four riders. 

The four are: Hugo Houle (Astana), Sergio Samitier (Movistar), Francesco Romano (Bardiani CSF) and jon Agirre (Equipo Kern Pharma). 

The riders are currently on a long loop in the countryside before a fast ride into the centre of Valencia. 

While the Saudi Tour has ended and Jai Hindley of Team Sunweb secured overall victory at the Herald Sun Tour, the racing continues in the south of France at the Etoile des Besseges. Today is the decisive TT stage around Alès. 

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Click here to read our full report and see the photo gallery from the final stage of the Herald Sun Tour. 

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45km to go. 

Hugo Houle (Astana), Sergio Samitier (Movistar), Francesco Romano (Bardiani CSF) and jon Agirre (Equipo Kern Pharma) are working smoothly together but the peloton, and especially Jumbo-Visma and Deceuninck-QuickStep are keeping them in check at 1:00.  

Here's our expected race winner: Tadej Pogacar.

With 37km to go, the gap is down to 25 seconds. The peloton seems to be playing with the four breakaways.

As the road descends slightly, the peloton eases up to let the break push out their lead to 45 seconds. It's a game of cat and mouse. 

Romano is a climber and so offers little shelter for the riders with him in the break.

25km to go. 

The four attackers are giving it big licks but the peloton is gradually reeling them in like a huge tuna. 

The road is flat and straight now as the stage passes through the Valencia orange groves.

The four lead by just 30 seconds now. 

18km to go. The peloton can almost see the break now.  

15km to go. 

The Jumbo and Deceuninck teams continue to lead the peloton, swapping off on the front.

The CN blimp is struggling to hold the pace, the peloton is riding at close to 60km/h. 

The ride into Valencia includes a left turn with 5km to go, then a section alongside the park, before a sweeping turn with 1km to go. 

Positioning in the final two or three kilometres will be vital to ensure the best positioning for the late corners.

10km to go. 

The race is on a wide highway, helping the catch of the break. 

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Lotto Soudal and Mitchelton hit the front and up the pace.

Dylan Groenewegen won the sprint on the same finish last year. Can anyone beat him this time?

Pogacar is up front but alone. He is looking around for some of his UAE teammates.

Lotto are riding for Degenkolb, Mitchelton for Mezgec

5km to go.

UAE have to protect Pogacar and ride to help Kristoff in the sprint.

The riders dive into a tunnel for the sweep into central Valencia.

4km to go.

Pogacar has hit the front to avoid any problems. 

3km to go!

Now Ineos take over. For Swift and to protect Tao Geoghegan Hart.

Last km! Here we go! 

Deceuninck lead it out.

For Jakobsen.

Oooohhh! That's close.

Dylan Groenewegen thought he had it but it looks like Jakobsen came back at him to take it.

Jakobsen had the speed to hold off Dylan Groenewegen and take his first win of 2020. 

Tadej Pogacar finished in the peloton and so secured overall victory.

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Tadej Pogacar spoke briefly before pulling on the winner's yellow jersey. 

Pogacar was one of the revelations of 2019, especially after his third place overall at the Vuelta. He will ride the Tour de France for the first time in 2020. 

These are the provisional top ten results.

Final general classification:

Dylan Groenewegen finished second on the final stage but won the orange points jersey and two other stages.

Jakobsen's win in Valencia was the 15th of his two-year WorldTour career. He is now one of Deceuninck's lead sprinters.

Jakobsen will team-up with new Italian signing Davide Ballerini. 

VALENCIA SPAIN FEBRUARY 09 Arrival Fabio Jakobsen of The Netherlands and Team Deceuninck QuickStep Celebration John Degenkolb of Germany and Team LottoSoudal during the 71st Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana 2020 Stage 5 a 977km stage from Paterna Valencia VueltaCV VCV2020 on February 09 2020 in Valencia Spain Photo by David RamosGetty Images

Fabio Jakobsen celebrates his win in Valencia (Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
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To read our full stage report, results and see our growing photo gallery from the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, click here.

Thanks for joining us for our live coverage. We'll have more live updates from other races in the days to come. 

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