Porte wins penultimate Pais Vasco stage with late solo attack

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Ritchie Porte (Team Sky) showed he is determined to fight for overall victory at the Vuelta al Pais Vasco by winning the fifth stage with a late solo attack to gain some precious seconds before Saturday’s final stage time trial.

The riders raced through the Basque hills in pouring rain, with a final climb just six kilometres before the finish proving to be the key point of the race. Porte was part of a select group that formed on the descent to the finish and then he surged away with 1.5km to go, leaving his rivals struggling behind.

Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) lead home the chasers, four seconds behind Porte.

Henao finished third and so retained the race leader’s yellow jersey. Nairo Quintana (Movistar) remains second overall at six seconds, with Porte third, now also at six seconds. Alberto Contador is fourth overall at ten seconds.

Porte and Contador are expected to fight for overall victory in the 24km time trial through the streets of Beasain. Every second will count in deciding the final winner.

"It was the last road stage and everybody wanted to be in the breakaway," said Porte. "In the end the guys up the road were the guys who had the legs to be there. They were strong riders but [Vasil] Kiryienka and Xabi [Zandio] were just absolutely incredible. They controlled things all day. For Sergio and myself we just had to finish it off and it worked perfectly.

"I guess that’s the goal now – to finish it off. I’ll enjoy today and winning this stage but tomorrow is going to be a whole different ball game. It’s not a typical time trial. There’s some climbs in there and I’ll take it as it comes. Regardless it’s been a brilliant Pays Basque. We’ve won two stages and Sergio’s had the jersey for three days now."

The 166km stage included 10 categorised climbs but numerous others that added up to a very hard in the saddle. The rain and cold made it even harder, with the likes of former winner Andreas Kloden (RadioShack-Leopard) and world champion Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing Team) climbing off early. Just 73 riders finished the stage.

Despite the conditions, riders went on the attack, forcing Team Sky to lead the peloton all day. Jose Herrada, Javier Moreno and Rui Costa (Movistar), Egor Silin (Astana), Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp), Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), Ion Izaguirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Daniel Navarro (Cofidis) combined to create a dangerous and ambitious nine-rider move.

They opened a 1:30 gap but Team Sky kept them under control with some strong riding by Joe Dombrowski and John-Tiernan Locke in the early part of the stage, before Xabier Zandio and Vasil Kiryienka took over.

Kiryienka spend close to 60km on or near the front as the break up the road fell apart in the hills. Omar Fraile (Caja Rural) managed to get across and join the break and then ploughed on alone, going deep on the climbs in search of glory.

The penultimate time through the finish, the break was caught but Fraile pushed on, opening out a gap of a minute. However the final climb, the Alto de Olaberria, topped out just six kilometres from the finish, proving fatal for the lanky Spaniard. He cracked on the climb while behind the overall contenders upped the speed after Kiryienka finally moved off the front.

Samuel Sanchez attacked over the top of the climb and went again on a slight rise. He dragged a small group clear but other riders managed to get back on during the wet descent. Contador was there, as were Porte, race leader Henao and other riders in the top ten. 

Team Sky rode intelligently, looking for the stage victory and precious seconds. Henao made an attack first and when he was pulled back, Porte tried his hand, diving into the wet corners and then powering clear as Quintana was unable to close the gap. Henao cleverly blocked for his teammate, allowing Porte to extend his lead to four seconds.

The Tasmanian now leads Contador by four seconds going into the final time trial and will start behind him on Saturday. They could be two vital factors in helping him win overall and give Team Sky another stage race victory.