Stage 5

The road

At the start

Back to the wall at Valdepeñas

Sylvain Chavanel took red without contesting the stage and leads Daniel Moreno by 43 seconds, with Fuglsang, Nibali and Kessiakoff all inside a minute. Today starts with the rare experience of descending from a ski resort, crosses parched open country where the wind may have a say, and then climbs the finishing wall at Valdepeñas de Jaén twice — the second time at 23 percent to the line.

How it was won

1. 1120 km to go

   First time up Valdepeñas

   The finishing wall is climbed once in the middle of the stage, and it detonates the race: Taaramäe first over the top, then seven more across to him, Sagan and Albasini among them.

2. 277 km to go

   Albasini goes alone

   Out of frustration more than calculation, Michael Albasini leaves the break on his own and takes two minutes, mostly because a peloton that fears eight riders does not fear one.

3. 38 km to go

   Katusha take the climb apart

   Karpets drives the front at a speed that starts hurting people well before the road tilts; Klöden is one of the first to go. Dyachenko jumps four kilometres from the summit and Moncoutié comes past him and keeps going.

4. 42 km to go

   The Spanish Mur de Huy

   Moncoutié starts the final wall with twenty-five seconds and no descending legs left to defend it. Moreno, riding for his leader after a day off the leash, hauls the whole bunch up to him and round him.

5. 5At the line

   Valdepeñas de Jaén

   Still nearly a kilometre out, in the confusion of the catch, Joaquim Rodriguez opens the taps on a gradient built for exactly his body. Only Wout Poels gets anywhere near, and only for a while.

The result