Vuelta a Espana stage 5 Live - More Basque hills en route to Bilbao

Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage of stage 5 of the 2022 Vuelta a España

After yesterday's sharp uphill finish in Laguardia, today's stage serves up more punchy Basque terrain, with the double ascent of the Alto del Vivero - which reaches 10% in parts - and a downhill run-in to Bilbao. 

Blue skies and temperatures nearing 30 degrees in Irún, right on the French border. We'll be heading west along the coast of northern Spain to the famous city of Bilbao, tucking inland for a few climbs along the way.

The riders have all signed on and they're beginning to gather on the start line. Roll-out is coming up in just over five minutes, the start proper closer to the hour.

Before we get going, now's the time to catch up on yesterday's action. Stage 4 report, results, photos in the link below. 

Primoz Roglic moves into Vuelta a España lead after winning stage 4

Today's stage is an interesting one, which could go a number of ways. The Vivero is tough, but it's unlikely to do any real GC damage at this early stage in the race. The downhill run-in to Bilbao will catch the eyes of the versatile variety of sprinters who can survive medium climbs. But the most likely outcome could be a breakaway victory. With this sort of terrain, and with enough question marks over who'll control the peloton, there should be a fair bit of interest in today's escape.

The riders are on the move and on their way to kilometre zero. 

Before we get properly underway, here's some highly recommended reading based on today's stage

The Alto de Vivero is practically in Igor Antón's back garden. This very finale was used in the 2011 Vuelta, on the race's first visit to the Basque Country in 33 years (due to political problems in Spain) and Antón triumphed in front of his home fans, for the home Euskadi team, on home soil. It was a massive moment for rider, team and race. 

My colleague Alasdair Fotheringham sits down with Antón to re-live that day, and find out the secrets of the Vivero and the run-in to Bilbao. 

Local hero – Igor Antón's electrifying 2011 Vuelta a España victory in Bilbao

One non-starter today. Dan Hoole (Trek-Segafredo) has tested positive for COVID-19

We're off

The stage is waved underway, and here come the first attacks. We could see the first real fight for a breakaway of this Vuelta.

As expected, it's an intense start. Plenty of attacks, nothing sticking.

Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) looks to get up the road. He wears the white jersey as best young rider.

Hayter might be the sort of fast finisher who could get over today's final climb, but Ineos won't control all day and he doesn't look like he wants to gamble. He hits out and draws out a group of four counter-attackers. 

The chasing four are: Rein Taaramae (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux), Mark Donovan (Team DSM), Ibai Azurmendi (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Simon Guglielmi (Arkea-Samsic). 

167km to go

The peloton roars back and it's all together after 20km.

Harry Sweeny (Lotto Soudal) kicks off the next wave of attacks but the bunch is strung out and flying along.

Six riders go clear but they're quickly brought back. 

A much bigger move threatens to go clear but some teams musn't have made it, as it comes back once again.

The average speed so far is over 50km/h 🔥

We've done just over 40km so far. The categorised climbing starts after 90km. This breakaway battle could go on for a good while yet.

137km to go

That's 50km on the clock. We've been racing for a shade under an hour. A fast and frantic start!

The riders now tackle a short uncategorised climb, but no moves going here.

A group of a dozen goes clear over the top.

Vuelta a España sees first COVID-19 case as Daan Hoole leaves race

Here was Clement Russo and Jake Stewart attacking a short while ago, but there has been a response from the bunch to each and every move so far.

Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) tries his luck. Things are getting serious now. The Dane has finished runner-up on each of the past three stages and took a virtuoso breakaway stage win at the Tour de France recently.

Pedersen is brought back and the peloton continues as one. 

Horrible news to report this morning - the death of Rab Wardell, who was only 37 and won the Scottish MTB XC championship at the weekend. 

Scottish mountain bike champion Rab Wardell dies following cardiac arrest

75km on the clock and we have our latest breakaway attempt. Nine in this one and they gain a bit of ground.

Here are the nine attackers

Jaakko Hanninen (AG2R Citroën), Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious), Jake Stewart (Groupama-FDJ), Alessandro De Marchi (Israel Premier Tech), Gregor Muhlberger (Movistar), Fausto Masnada (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), Lawson Craddock (BikeExchange-Jayco), Victor Langellotti (Burgos-BH) and Roger Adria (Kern Pharma).
 

A strong counter-attack sets off in pursuit. This could kick things off again and take us back to square one.

The counter-attack makes it across and this could be it....

Lots of feeding starting to take place in the peloton. It seems they're letting this go...

The five latecomers are: Vadim Pronskiy (Astana Qazaqstan), Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ), Julius Johansen (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux), Nikias Arndt (Team DSM) and Anthony Delaplace (Arkea-Samsic).

The gap goes out to 40 seconds but it's not done just yet. Four more counter-attackers hit out.

The new chasers: Jonathan Caicedo (EF Education-EasyPost), Daryl Impey (Israel Premier Tech), Kamil Malecki (Lotto Soudal), Ibai Azurmendi (Euskaltel-Euskadi).

100km to go

The road rises ahead of the first of the day's five categorised climbs, the cat-3 Puerto de Gontzagarinaga. The breakaway leads the four chasers by 30 seconds and the peloton by 1:35.

The climb begins. It's 5.3km at an average gradient of 4.5%

Hanninnen has crashed out of the breakaway. 

The four-man chase gets across to make it 18 riders in the breakaway. The peloton is at just under two minutes. 

Marc Soler attacks from the bunch. Obviously. 

Jumbo-Visma are setting the pace en masse at the head of the peloton as we head up this climb.

Here's the full composition of the breakaway 

Alessandro De Marchi, Daryl Impey (Israel Premier Tech)

Rudy Molard, Jake Stewart (Groupama-FDJ)

Fausto Masnada (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl)

Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious)

Gregor Muhlberger (Movistar)

Vadim Pronskiy (Astana Qazaqstan)

Julius Johansen (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux)

Nikias Arndt (Team DSM)

Anthony Delaplace (Arkea-Samsic)

Jonathan Caicedo (EF Education-EasyPost)

Kamil Malecki (Lotto Soudal)

Lawson Craddock (BikeExchange-Jayco)

Victor Langellotti (Burgos-BH)

Roger Adria (Kern Pharma)

Ibai Azurmendi (Euskaltel-Euskadi)

Top of the Gontzagarinaga and it's Langellotti who skips clear to take maximum mountains points. 

90km to go

Soler passes over the summit just over a minute down. The peloton follows at 2:30, led by Jumbo-Visma. 

Puerto de Gontzagarinaga

1. Langellotti, 3 pts
2. Adria, 2 pts
3. Molard, 1 pt

After a short descent, it's straight onto the well-known Balcón de Bizkaia

The climb is 4.2km long at 5.6%

Soler is doing a great effort here. He's breezing across the gap and is 37 seconds down now. 

De Marchi has been dropped from the breakaway.

Soler links up with De Marchi and now they're both on their way up to the front of the race. 

Soler is across. That's 18 in the breakaway now. 

The breakaway comes to the top of the Balcón de Bizkaia. Here comes the battle for points again. 

Langellotti gets there again ahead of Adria

82km to go

The peloton crests the climb 3:30 behind the 18 leaders.

A longer descent now and then it's over to the Alto de Morga, the last climb before the Vivero double header.

71km to go

Jumbo-Visma continue to set a solid tempo. They're keeping the gap at 3:40 at the moment.

The best-placed rider on GC who's in this breakaway is Molard, who started the day 58 seconds down, so is currently the virtual red jersey. 

The breakaway hit the Alto de Morga, which is 8.6km at 3.5%

Looking at the composition of the break, the two teams who have more than one rider are FDJ and Israel. It already looks like Stewart is sacrificing himself for Molard. 

In terms of the teams not represented, that would be Jumbo, Ineos, Trek, Cofidis, Alpecin, Bora, AG2R (although the latter because Hanninnen crashed out)

While Molard is the virtual leader, he does have company in the fight for the red jersey. Fred Wright is just four seconds behind him on GC, and that tussle for the overall lead is just one aspect of this breakaway complexion. 

The peloton are conceding ground on this climb. The gap goes out beyond five minutes, and that means it's becoming more certainly a breakaway day. 

We reach the top of the Morga climb, and Langellotti does his thing again, adding another three mountains points to his tally. That's nine for the day and he's heading into the polka-dot jersey.

The peloton crest the climb 4:40 in arrears. 

A short downhill and then we'll be heading to the Alto del Vivero, which will be scaled twice today. 

Before we get to the Vivero, now's the time to have a read of this

It's Igor Antón telling us about his emotional and important victory on this very finale the last time the Vuelta used it back in 2011, which was the race's first visit to the Basque Country in 33 fraught years. Antón still lives in the area and can see the Vivero from his garden, so he also gives us the lowdown on the ascent and the descent.

Local hero – Igor Antón's electrifying 2011 Vuelta a España victory in Bilbao

The pace picks up in the peloton on the approach to the Vivero. Jumbo-Visma fade away. Or rather, they're now flanked by other teams getting into formation. 

There was a big atmosphere when Antón was here in 2011 and it should be the same again today. The Basque fans can always be relied upon to bring the noise, and it's the start of their regional celebrations as well. 

...as Alasdair Fotheringham texts me in his latest update...

"Not much new news from the finish except it's hotter than hell and Bilbao is having its fiestas, so expect lots of pissed Basques throwing moonies and running onto the road waving ikurrinas."

Here we go, the Alto del Vivero begins for the first time. 

It's 4.6km long at an average gradient of 8%. That's steep, but it does include a flatter section, so there is some even steeper stuff in there. 

47km to go

Soler, who bridged a 90-second gap to make this breakaway earlier on, hits the front to force the issue. 

Jake Stewart looks to drive things on now. A reminder he seems to be working for FDJ teammate Molard, but does have a great sprint on him himself. 

The peloton hit the climb and Jumbo reassert some control through Rohan Dennis and Robert Gesink. The other teams wanted a good position on entry but its unlikely we'll see any fireworks on this first ascent. 

Still, the pace on approach has seen the gap fall below 3:30. 

That does bring the stage win back into the question but it looks fairly settled again back there. 

The Israel duo of De Marchi and Impey are struggling at the back of the break. Muhlberger and Malecki too. 

Craddock attacks from the break!

The US rider gets a decent gap. 

Langellotti leads the chase, hunting points that would seal him the KOM jersey for tomorrow. 

Stewart loses contact towards the top, but could be able to get back in on the descent. 

The crowds thicken in the final 500 metres of the climb. Loads of fans leaning into the road waving their flags, creating a narrow tunnel for the riders to duck through. 

Chris Froome is dropped from the bunch. 

Craddock skips towards the top

Here comes Langellotti with a last-gasp acceleration!!

But he can't catch Craddock, who crests the Vivero in first place. Langellotti still takes three more points that cements the KOM jersey for stage 6. 

Those two have a small gap as they start the descent. Seven riders remain in the next group from the breakaway, but more could get back in before the next ascent. 

Here comes the peloton. What's the damage? 

4:15, so they knocked it off again and are allowing the breakaway to take the stage and likely also the red jersey. 

Wright and Molard - the red jersey contenders - are both up front but this break is now starting to attack each other. 

It's a pedalling descent with a few flat sections, and it's getting messy up front. 

32km to go

As expected, Stewart and a few others come back, so we now have 12 riders at the head of the race.

The leaders are:

Soler, Molard, Wright, Langellotti, Pronskiy, Craddock, Arndt, Muhlberger, Masnada, Impey, Adria, Stewart

Wright has set up shop on Molard's wheel, and he's not moving. A reminder that Molard is the best-placed on GC and set to take the red jersey, with Wright poised just four seconds back. 

The breakaway finishes the descent and heads into Bilbao. 

28.8km to go

Into the home straight and across the finish line, but don't worry, we have another lap and another ascent of the Vivero to come. Langelotti leads the 12-rider break across as the bell sounds, with more than five minutes back to the peloton. 

That was actually also an intermediate sprint, not that any of them seemed bothered about it. 

So we started out with a break of 18 and we now have 12, so six have fallen away and they're out of the equation now and more than two minutes down: Azurmendi, De Marchi, Johansen, Delaplace, Malecki, Caicedo.

Jake Stewart attacks

We're still on the flat as we head out of Bilbao. Stewart has done a lot of work for Molard but FDJ are getting tactical here and forcing the hands of others.

Stewart has opened a lead of 20 seconds with just over 20km to go

Jumbo-Visma lead the peloton at five minutes. It's a breakaway day, but we might just see a couple of GC accelerations. 

Wright is being leant on in the chase group. There aren't many willing to work here and the gap goes out to 30 seconds!

18.5km to go

Stewart hits the final climb of the Alto del Vivero. We've done it already, but a reminder that it's 4.6km at 8% but with some gentler stuff and some steeper stuff. 

40 seconds now as the riders in the chase head to team cars to get bottles and final supplies ahead of the climb, where things are sure to light up properly. 

Stewart hits the double digit stuff and strains out of the saddle. 

42 seconds for the young Brit and no moves yet behind.

But now Adria kicks things off. He gets a gap. 

Stewart is a rider in form, having won a sprint stage at the recent Tour de l'Ain. He's been an emerging talent in the past couple of years but had to take a step back earlier this year due to a stomach disease. He's a fast finisher who can survive some smaller climbs, and a budding Classics rider. 

Soler is struggling now as the rest of the break starts to fragment. 

Ineos take over on the approach back in the bunch. 

Up front it's 30 seconds for Stewart as he heads towards the flatter section in the middle. 

Ineos lead the peloton onto the climb but Gesink muscles back through to reassert control from Jumbo. 

Stewart finds time on the flatter section! 2.5km to the top and he had slipped to 20 seconds ahead but it goes back out to 30.

Adria's attack fizzled out and the other 11 are back together now, with Langellotti on the front doing a big turn at the moment. 

Soler attacks! The cooperation ebbs and flows and now Soler, struggling before, decides to try an attack. 

Nothing happening in the peloton. It looks like this will be a relative GC day-off. 

Stewart starts to slip again. 10 seconds now. 

Soler is making this attack stick. 

Wright accelerates behind!

Molard is glued to the wheel. Craddock also alive to it. 

If Stewart can just stay in the group over this climb, he's probably the fastest sprinter of the 12....

Wright is seemingly happy to drag riders along. He continues to lead the chase of Stewart and Soler. 

Wright was a memorable presence at the Tour de France, in around three or four breakaways and coming closer and closer. Is now the time?

Soler closes in on Stewart with 1200 metres to the top of the Vivero.

Soler reaches Stewart and breezes past him!

It's another big acceleration and Stewart is done for!

Wright dials it up again, and he's cracking this group wide open. What a ride. Molard is glued to his wheel though.

They reach Stewart, who tries to cling on as the road flattens out again for a brief period. 

Soler leads by nine seconds as he heads into the crowds in the final 500 metres of the climb. 

Langellotti and Pronskiy are up with Wright, Molard, and Stewart in the chase. Craddock dangling just behind.

There are bonus seconds at the top of this climb. 3-2-1 for the top three. Molard and Wright will fight for the remainders.

Soler crests the climb alone in the lead, with 12 seconds in hand.

It looks like Wright gets there to second place ahead of Molard to claw a second back and reduce his deficit to three seconds on GC.

Stewart and Craddock distanced at the top there. 

13.5km to go

Soler leads the race by 13 seconds, heading downhill. 

Apologies, Molard was second to the top of the Vivero, and Wright fourth, so that's actually two seconds in favour of Molard, who now has six seconds on the Brit on GC. He's heading into the red jersey.

The chase group is disorganised and that'll help Soler. Wright is on the front, with Langelotti, Molard, and Pronskiy. A little further back are Stewart and Craddock. 

Molard knows he's most likely riding into red, and he has Stewart behind, so he won't help this chase for now. 

Jumbo-Visma lead the peloton to the top of the climb at just over four minutes. No GC action. 

10km remaining

Soler has 10 seconds with 10 to go.

Stewart and Craddock rejoin the chase group. So six in there now. 

Soler hits one of the numerous false flats and has to spring out of the saddle. It's a pedalling descent that favours a group - but only one that's well organised. 

Molard now starts to work in the chase. 

But Wright accelerates and Stewart cracks!

Stewart is on the radio. He's done, no chance of coming back now. 

7km to go

Soler has 15 seconds in hand as Craddock pushes on behind.

It's down to 10 seconds! Wright and Craddock are working together. 

Molard and Pronskiy takes some turns now, and Langellotti too. We finally have some cooperation there. 

5km to go

Regrouping! The second chase group is coming back to make one bigger chase group behind Soler

Arndt, Adria, Masnada, Impey, Muhlberger are all back in the game now!!

4km to go and just six seconds for Soler against a 10-man group. 

3km to go

Soler is holding at seven seconds. Will this bigger chase group collaborate?

No, they won't. Classic. They're attacking each other. 

Masnada goes for it and Muhlberger follows. 

Fast downhill and Soler uses it to hold his lead. 

1500 metres to go and four riders now in the chase, but it's coming back...

Final kilometre and the chase comes back together. 10 in the chase behind SOler, still alone!!

It's so close, only a few seconds. Surely a sprint can still overhaul this.

Pronskiy takes the lead of the chase.

Wright takes it up now.

500 metres to go and they're looking at each other behind!!!

Wright winds it up behind. Soler is grimacing!!

Soler is going to hold on! He's celebrating already!

Soler takes it! Wow! What a win

Impey mops up for second, Wright third, but UCI rankings points aside it matters for nothing, and they've all cancelled each other out. Soler has danced away with it with a brave and thrilling victory. 

- Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) wins stage 5 of the Vuelta a España

- Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ) takes the red jersey as overall leader

Jumbo-Visma lead the peloton across the finish line at an arrears of 5:08. It's not a GC day but they do loan the red jersey out to Molard, who has a lead of more than four minutes over Roglic. 

Results

We can hear from the new race leader, Molard, who enjoys a second spell in red after doing the same in 2018. 

"I did it again. It's a big day for me. I was thinking about this from yesterday. I was not so far on GC. I told my teammates it was possible to get the red jersey today and I did it. It's so good. 

"Jake [Stewart] was so strong today. He pulled for me, but at the end it was very confused, with many attacks, and he got his chance. In the final I was waiting for him because I know in a sprint he could win the stage. Soler gets the victory and it's good for me, with the bonus seconds, for the red jersey, so a perfect position. It's amazing. 

"I just had to follow [Wright]. He was very strong. I know he's very fast in a sprint, so I was in doubt for the final sprint. When Arndt and Impey came from the back it was better for me."