Stage 5

The road

At the start

Cavendish loses his lead-out man

Igor Antón's win on the wall leaves Philippe Gilbert holding red by ten seconds from Antón and Rodríguez, with Nibali twelve back and the top five inside sixteen seconds. HTC-Columbia have lost Bernhard Eisel, which matters more today than it does to the classification: 199 kilometres out of Andalucía into Murcia, not one categorised climb on the profile, and a sprint in Lorca at the end of it.

How it was won

1. 113 km to go

   Swept up with thirteen to go

   Rolland, Gutiérrez, Toribio and Labbé have been out since the flag and held 6:30 at the maximum. Rolland tries to go alone as the catch comes and all four are absorbed thirteen kilometres from Lorca.

2. 2At the line

   Cavendish goes too early

   Cavendish picks his way through the chaos and hits the front 400 metres out on a deceptively long finishing straight — and dies in the last two hundred. Tyler Farrar roars past inside the final hundred metres, with Koldo Fernández closing fast for second.

The result