Kämna wins final stage of Ruta del Sol

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Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) attacked on the final climb to take victory on the fifth stage of the Ruta Del Sol in Chiclana de Segura, while Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious) saw off attacks from his rivals to seal the overall victory. 

Kämna was part of a 17-man breakaway which had a gap of two minutes on the bunch approaching the climb to the finish. The German was aided by team-mate Emanuel Buchmann before launching his bid for glory with three kilometres remaining of the gradual climb to Chiclana de Segura.

He was chased by Italians Lorenzo Fortunato (Eolo-Kometa) and Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates) but the German held on for his fourth career victory and first for nearly a year. Fortunato took second on the stage just four seconds back, while Covi finished third a further six seconds later

Last year Kämna took a 'flexible break' from racing to try and recover from lingering health problems not racing for the remainder of the season.

"It was a really hard race and was full gas from kilometre zero," said Kämna after the stage. "We were always there with a lot of guys so we could play the stage really well, in the end it worked out perfectly.

"It means a lot to me especially after my break last year. I'm so happy to come back like this on the Europe race calendar and I'm just looking forward to the next races. We want to win as much as possible; we want to ride aggressively and I think we've done it here."

In the fight for the overall victory on the final seven-kilometre climb to the finish, firstly Miguel Ángel López (Astana Qazaqstan Team) attacked with just over a kilometre remaining and then Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) on the steeper slopes. 

However, Poels was equal to their efforts finishing just a handful of seconds down on Yates who led the peloton home to seal the overall victory by 14 seconds. Cristián Rodríguez (TotalEnergies) finished the stage strongly beating a fading López to take second overall one second ahead of the Astana Qazaqstan rider.

"I'm super-happy it's the second general classification (GC) win of my life," said Poels. "I really like this race I've finished second before on GC and now the win. The team did an amazing job today to control everything and I couldn't be happier today.

"My goals are to just try and win as much as possible. I really like this race; it suits me well and I always like to race in Spain. We will see the rest of the season." 

How it unfolded

After escaping a race-long breakaway to take the win into Baza the previous day Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious) held a precarious 10-second lead coming into the fifth and final stage.

Reigning Ruta Del Sol champion Miguel Ángel López (Astana Qazaqstan Team) was set poised 10 seconds back and ready for an assault on the final seven-kilometre unclassified climb to the finish at Chiclana de Segura.

After a tough stage the previous day the 113 starters were given no respite hitting the second category Puerto Fuente del Gallo shortly after the start.

Lennard Kämna (BORA – Hansgrohe) was the early attacker as the leading breakaway of 19 riders formed on the opening 6.7-kilometre climb. The leaders had seen their lead grow up to over one minute by the top of the second category Puerto de Tíscar topping out after 30.2 kilometres of racing.

Despite losing seven minutes with the peloton on the previous stage and seeing his yellow jersey ambition ended Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech) was the highest place overall in the breakaway group. Jon Barrenetxea (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) had led the King of the Mountains classification going into the final stage.

However, his team-mate Alvaro Cuadros had made the day's breakaway and picked up maximum points on both the Puerto Fuente del Gallo and Puerto de Tíscar climbs drawing him back to six points from the classification leader, but Barrenetxea would eventually hold on to the jersey.

With 84 kilometres remaining the breakaway split on an unclassified climb to leave 14 riders at the front who were closely monitored by the bunch pushed on by Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team and brought back with half the stage remaining.

On the lower slopes of the third category Alto de Iznatoraf climb with 50 kilometres remaining a large group of 17 riders went clear.

The breakaway including former race leader and stage two winner Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates) along with stage three victor Magnus Sheffield (INEOS Grenadiers) and Clarke was also part of the group.

As the breakaway's advantage grew to 1:45 and they hit the steeper slopes of the Alto de Iznatoraf it was Emanuel Buchmann (BORA-Hansgrohe) who attacked.

Buchmann was joined by Lorenzo Fortunato (Eolo-Kometa) and Jimmy Janssens (Alpecin-Fenix) as the trio climbed the upper slopes.

Over the summit Fortunato took the King of the Mountains points and the trio had a lead of 10 seconds over the remains of the breakaway and 2:30 on the peloton with 38 kilometres remaining. On the descent the trio were caught to leave 17 riders in the leading group with a 2:57 advantage on the bunch with 28.5 kilometres remaining.

As the bunch approached the final seven-kilometre push up to the finish at Chiclana de Segura the breakaway had a healthy advantage of two minutes. At the front Buchmann forced the pace which saw several riders dropped including Clarke as the leaders started to battle for the stage honours inside the last five kilometres.

Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) launched two stinging attacks, but Buchmann pulled him back on both occasions. Responding to the work of his Bora-Hansgrohe teammate Kämna made his bid for glory with just over three kilometres remaining.

Covi was the first to respond but lacked the power to bring back Kämna on his own before being joined by climber Fortunato. Kämna was powering on and had a gap which was holding at six seconds over the chasers with a kilometre remaining.

The German took victory four seconds ahead of Fortunato while points classification winner Covi finished third on the stage. In the battle for overall honours López was looking to take seconds back and attacked with two kilometres remaining but was followed by Poels and his rivals.

Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) Rodriquez was next to attack on the streets to the finish before Adam Yates Team BikeExchange-Jayco ) counter-attacked.  Poels was the only rider able to respond to Yates finishing just seconds behind the British rider to seal the overall victory.