Kaden Groves repeats victory in the 5th stage of La Vuelta a España 2023

New victory for Alpecin-Deceunick which, as it did in the Tour de France, comes to La Vuelta a España 2023 with a clear intention to dominate the sprint finishes. Renco Evenepoel is a bit more of a leader after adding 6 tasty seconds in the bonus intermediate sprint of the day.

Calmness reigns in the 5th stage of La Vuelta a España 2023

Although in theory it could have been a stage to give more play, especially for a good level breakaway, the truth is that the 5th stage of La Vuelta, between Morella and Burriana, with the Espadán mountain range of Castellón as protagonist, was a somewhat bland stage with the peloton thinking more about tomorrow's hard stage, the second high finish in Javalambre, than in today's victory.

Proof of this is that the breakaway of the day consisted of only one adventurer, Uruguayan Burgos-BH rider Eric Facúndez, who had up to 5 minutes, although the peloton soon began to control the advantage without too many problems.

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A stage in which it was necessary to count the damage after the spectacular crash in the last kilometers of yesterday's stage. The biggest casualty of the day, Bryan Coquard, did not make it to the start after being diagnosed with a broken scapula. Similar damage was suffered by Ruben Guerreiro, one of Enric Mas' main supporters in Movistar Team, who was also unable to start after breaking his collarbone.

Eddie Dunbar added one more unit to the list of retirements when he crashed in the neuralyzed section and Filippo Zana's retirement with intestinal problems completed a black day for Jayco-AlUla.

In the only pass of the day, the climb to Collado de Íbola, classified as 2nd category, Eduardo Sepúlveda jumped with just under 5 kilometers to go. He quickly managed to neutralize the advantage that separated him from Facúndez and, without too much difficulty, he won a few points to continue to consolidate his mountain jersey.

From there, the pace progressively accelerated towards the finish with the peloton looking for a more than foreseeable sprint. Before that, they crossed the bonus sprint of Nules, 11 kilometers from the finish line where, by surprise, Remco Evenepoel took off, gaining 6 extra seconds that leave him a little more leader at the top of the overall classification.

Sprint relatively clean, only a previous crash just over 3 km from the end and the puncture of Romain Bardet at 5 km and lost 5 and a half minutes at the finish line as the most notable incidents. He reached the final straight leading Alpecin-Deceuninck who impeccably launched Kaden Groves. What the Australian did not expect was the sensational comeback of Filippo Ganna who came close to steal the victory.

Stage 5 Classification

1. Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 4h23’43’’
2. Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers) +00’’
3. Dries Van Gestel (TotalEnergies) +00’’
4. Alberto Dainese (DSM-Firmenich) +00’’
5. Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ) +00’’
6. Edward Theuns (Lidl-Trek) +00’’
7. David González (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) +00’’
8. Geoffrey Soupe (TotalEnergies) +00’’
9. Jesús Ezquerra (Burgos-BH) +00’’
10. Jarrad Drizners (Lotto-Dstny) +00’’

Overall Classification

1. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) 17h12’29’’
2. Enric Mas (Movistar Team) +11’’
3. Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) +17’’
4. Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) +37’’
5. Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) +39’’
6. Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bora-Hansgrohe) +39’’
7. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) +43’’
8. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +44’’
9. Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) +48’’
10. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +48’’