VaE: Rodriguez doubles up for Katusha on Stage 5

Joaquin Rodriguez doubled Katusha’s stage tally, after a solid performance from his team, as took victory in Valdepeñas de Jaén.

Katusha controlled the final kilometres of the stage and used, yesterday’s winner, Daniel Moreno to launch Rodriquez to the line. The Spaniard has come in to the Vuelta with good form, after winning the Vuelta a Burgos. Moreno’s performance has moved him in to within nine seconds of the overall lead, with Rodriguez 14 second behind him.

Wout Poels was the man who separated the two on the stage, a late surge from him fell just short of the victory. Michele Scarponi and Nicolas Roche have helped their GC contentions, both finishing just 11 seconds down on the winner. Last year’s winner Vincenzo Nibali crossed the line 4 seconds later and sits 5^th in the GC. He will take some beating, if anyone wants to take the Vuelta crown away from him.

Sylvain Chavanel managed to hold on to his red jersey for another day, despite losing a further 31 seconds to the front group. Igor Anton had another shocker of the day and could only manage to get within 57 seconds of the winner. Anton came in to the race as one of the favourites, but has so far failed to impress.

It was a busy day for the bunch, with breakaway attempts from the very start and nothing proving successful. Eventually an eight man group did manage to pull out a small lead, before Michael Albasini decided to break ranks. He was then joined by former companions Johannes Frohlinger and Angel Madrazo, but they couldn’t manage to pull out more than a minute.

With 20km left to go, the group became one again and began to shell the tired straight off the back. The, steep, final ascent proved trick for some and even Bradley Wiggins, who has looked pretty good so far, found the pace difficult. He finished 20 seconds down, while, a blossoming, Dan Martin rolled home 29 seconds behind.

Stage 6 will be one for the descenders, but all will have to be prepared for the second category Alto del Catorce por Ciento. It isn’t quite like the mountains from the last few days, but it will catch some of the more tired riders out.