Vuelta a Espana: Simon Clarke wins stage 5

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Simon Clarke (EF Education First-Drapac) took victory in Roquetas de Mar on stage 5 of the Vuelta a Espana as the breakaway won for the second day running. Clarke out-sprinted Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) and Alessandro De Marchi (BMC Racing), who had attacked from a sizeable breakaway with 60 kilometres remaining.

Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ), who finished in the group behind Clarke, was the surprise recipient of the red jersey, ousting Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) from the top spot. Molard holds a 1:01 advantage over Kwiatkowski with Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) in third place at 1:08.

After Dimension Data finally broke their drought of WorldTour wins on Tuesday, EF Education First-Drapac were the only WorldTour team left missing a victory at the highest level. Pierre Rolland had come close for them the day before, but it was Clarke who finally did it, adding to his first Vuelta victory from the 2012 race. Coming into the finish sandwiched between De Marchi and Mollema, Clarke used his track nous to take the win by a bike's length.

"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," said Clarke. "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.

"I grew up on the track since I was 15, it was just like track racing. I know that De Marchi is fast, but it's such a long stage. It's so hard to sprint after that. Even I was cramping when Mollema attacked and I just rode through it. I backed myself. I was so worried they would catch us from behind, but in that situation you just have to be as cold as ice. You've got to be willing to lose to win, and I was and I came out on top."

The stage was constantly in flux as groups split and changed throughout the day. One constant was De Marchi, who was present in almost every attack and ultimately set up the race-winning move on an uncategorised ascent. Clarke and Mollema soon joined him and the trio remained together over the final haul up Alto El Marchal and through the long descent to the finish line.

In the final kilometres, nobody was keen to invest too much in the drive to the line and they were almost caught by Molard and his two companions. They didn’t quite manage it, but Molard would get the huge consolation prize of the red jersey.

How it happened

The challenging opening to the Vuelta a Espana with another lumpy affair from Granada to Roquetas de Mar, featuring two classified climbs. Kwiatkowski was once again in red after defending his jersey on the Vuelta's first summit finish.

After a successful breakaway on stage 4, there was a hotly contested battle to make the escape group this time out. With 40 kilometres of racing in the tank, a large group of 24 riders sprang clear but they too would be brought back to heel. Cofidis rider Stephane Rossetto began another flurry of attacks when he went off the front as the race hit the first climb of the day, the third category the Alto de Orgiva. The Frenchman would soon be joined by another breakaway specialist in Alessandro De Marchi (BMC Racing) and then Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo).

The three were brought back but would eventually make it into the 25-man move that went with just over 120 kilometres remaining. Following a furious start to the day, the peloton – which was led by Team Sky throughout the day – was happy to ease up and allowed the break to gain three minutes as they hit the 100km to go mark. With such a large group, it is always difficult to get people to work together and it wasn't long before there were attacks coming from the leading group.

Rossetto and De Marchi were once again the trouble makers in that scenario, with their barrage breaking the group into pieces. The pair carried on together as the riders behind failed to organise a cohesive chase. The accord would finally break up front as De Marchi decided to go it alone with 60 kilometres to go, leaving Rossetto to the sharks on a short uncategorised climb.

It would be another five or so kilometres before De Marchi had any company with Clarke and Mollema making it across the gap. Andrey Amador (Movistar) would be the next to try and bridge over, taking Alexandre Geniez (AG2R La Mondiale) with him. A breathless chase from Floris De Tier (LottoNL-Jumbo) saw the chase group now number three.

They too would be reabsorbed by the group behind as the advantage over the peloton grew to over six minutes. Once again, as so often at the Vuelta, it looked like the breakaway would be victorious. Davide Villella (Astana) would be the next to have a go at catching the three out front, bringing the gap down to as low as 20 seconds before being caught by Molard and De Tier. Molard had started the day just 3:46 down on Kwiatkowski and was now racing to take a hold of the red jersey.

As the leaders crested the final climb to begin the long descent towards the finish they had 45 seconds on their chasers with the peloton now 6:17 behind. The gap would increase to 1:20 for the leaders over the chasers by the foot of the descent, while the peloton was at a similar distance to where they had been at the top.

With just under 10 kilometres to go once they reached the flat, it would be a pursuit to the line for all involved. Team Sky had woken up to the possibility of losing the red jersey and had the group strung out in a long line as they tried to take back the one minute needed to keep Kwiatkowski in the race lead.

As the riders rolled into town, the leaders would begin testing each other's legs, putting in small digs to see how the others would react. Their playing would allow the chasers to close them down. However, Clarke, De Marchi and Mollema would duke it out for the win with Clarke taking it in the sprint for the line.

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