The fifth stage of the 2023 Vuelta a España was won by Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) after dueling with Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers). The Australian sprinter was once again the fastest in the collective sprint that defined the partial in Burriana, while the Belgian Remco Evenepoel kept the leader’s red jersey.
It was a new victory for the Alpecin-Deceunick club that, as it did in the Tour de France, arrives at La Vuelta a España with the clear intention of dominating the sprint finishes.
Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step), who donned the leader’s red jersey with his victory in the third stage, remains at the top of the general standings ahead of the Spanish Enric Mas after adding a sweet six seconds in the bonus intermediate sprint of the day . The Belgian has a 17-second advantage over the Frenchman Lenny Martinez (Groupama), who is in third place on the podium.
After the first duel of sprinters, the Spanish round continued this Wednesday with a stage of 186.2 kilometers from Morella to Burriana. The great protagonist of the day was the Uruguayan runner Erik Fagúndez (Burgos-BH), who starred alone in the breakaway of the day.
The brave charrúa ventured out alone and animated the day for a large part of the route. Fagúndez was caught by the Argentine Eduardo Sepúlveda (Lotto Dstny) two kilometers from the Ibola peak, the only scoring difficulty of the day, to leave alone, leaving the Uruguayan behind, but both would be hunted by the peloton with 38 km to go.
Passing the Collado de la Ibola (11.4 km at 3.9%), a second category climb, the Argentine Eduardo Sepúlveda decided to attack and went solo to score more points and continue as leader of the mountain prizes.
In the final section, the speed trains appeared in their maximum splendor, where the Colombian Juan Sebastián Molano had no luck and crashed. Finally, no one could do to prevent the triumph of Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who was once again the fastest in the packing, for the second consecutive day.
This Thursday the sixth stage of the Iberian round will take place, another mountainous section, with a 183.1-kilometre journey between La Vall d’Uixó and the Javalambre Astrophysical Observatory.
Classification Stage 5
1.- Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 4h23’43”
2.- Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers) m.t.
3.- Dries Van Gestel (TotalEnergies) m.t.
4.- Alberto Dainese (DSM-Firmenich) m.t.
5.- Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ) m.t.
6.- Edward Theuns (Lidl-Trek) m.t.
7.- David González (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) m.t.
8.- Geoffrey Soupe (TotalEnergies) m.t.
9.- Jesús Ezquerra (Burgos-BH) m.t.
10.- Jarrad Drizners (Lotto-Dstny) m.t.
General ranking
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) m.t.
7.- Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) +43’’
8.- Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +44”
9.- Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) +48”