Pavel Bittner steals the 5th stage of La Vuelta 2024 from Van Aert in the last meter by centimeters

New stage without much history in La Vuelta a España 2024 to enjoy another sprint finish in which Wout van Aert added another second place to his record. This time it was the young sprinter from DSM-Firmenich-PostNL Pavel Bittner who managed to snatch the victory from the Belgian and begins to position himself as one of the sprinters to watch in the coming years.

Heat and headwind bring us another calm day in La Vuelta a España 2024

Out of the 5 stages raced in this 2024 edition of La Vuelta a España, 3 have been, as they say in the jargon, "boring", which is something that Unipublic's organization should take a look at. It's true that yesterday the peloton faced the first mountain stage and tomorrow they will face a new day of great difficulty through the mountains of Ronda and Cadiz. It is also true that, in the middle of August, the scorching heat of southern Spain makes it difficult to push to the maximum, especially when there is still the whole Vuelta ahead.

It is precisely in these aspects where perhaps the organization of La Vuelta a España should take action, starting the race in the middle of August and directing it to southern Spain, and also having a stage without any mountain difficulty like today's, is a sure way for the show to be absent.

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There is little more to tell about a stage, between Fuente del Maestre and Seville, that had no major attraction other than seeing once again in the breakaway of the day some determined riders from Kern Pharma and Euskaltel Euskadi with Ibon Ruiz and Txomin Juaristi as their respective representatives, whom the peloton let go until they accumulated more than half an hour of delay.

A disadvantage in terms of the scheduled times that was partly reduced when, about 50 km from the finish, the wind began to make its presence felt, albeit timidly but enough for the favorites to take the lead of the group in case something happened and the pace picked up, which was the final blow for the breakaway.

Arrival in the streets of Seville through large avenues and without complicated areas. This did not prevent the fall of two EF Education-EasyPost riders, one of them being the veteran Rui Costa who was forced to abandon the race.

The last kilometers ran through a very long and wide straight that allowed Alpecin-Deceuninck to perfectly form their train for Kaden Groves while pushing the Visma-Lease a Bike out of the lead. Only Wout van Aert in person managed to stick to Groves' wheel and, as he has done in recent days, anticipated the sprint knowing he was slower than Alpecin-Deceuninck.

A move that seemed to work out well as the Australian got trapped. What the Visma-Lease a Bike rider did not expect was that an unexpected guest had joined his wheel. The young rider from DSM-Firmenich-PostNL Pavel Bittner, who, in a show of strength, managed to come from behind and beat Van Aert by just a few centimeters, requiring a photo finish to determine the winner.

Stage 5 Classification

1. Pavel Bittner (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL) 4h25'28''
2. Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) +00''
3. Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +00''
4. Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) +00''
5. Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) +00''
6. Corbin Strong (Israel-PremierTech) +00''
7. Jhonatan Narváez (INEOS Grenadiers) +00''
8. Arne Marit (Intermarché-Wanty) +00''
9. Gianmarco Garofoli (Astana) +00''
10. Antonio Jesús Soto (Kern Pharma) +00''

General Classification

1. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) 18h58'36''
2. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +08''
3. Enric Mas (Movistar Team) +32''
4. Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) +38''
5. Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Dstny) +41''
6. Felix Gall (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +47''
7. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) +50''
8. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +58''
9. Mikel Landa (Trex-QuickStep) +58''
10. Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +1'00''