Stage 5

The road

At the start

The flattest day, and the heat

Esteban Chaves holds red by five seconds from Tom Dumoulin and fifteen from Nicolas Roche after the climbs at Vejer. Today is the most straightforward stage of the whole race, 167 kilometres inland to Alcalá de Guadaíra with barely a rise in it. Only two things can go wrong: the Andalusian heat, and open country. If the wind gets up near the coast the echelons will do the rest.

How it was won

1. 119 km to go

   Harmony collapses up front

   Grmay stops working — tiredness or team orders, nobody says — and Iljo Keisse, a Giro stage winner three months ago, is unimpressed enough to ride away from both his companions with eighteen kilometres left.

2. 2At the line

   Ewan's first

   Sagan is swamped by Giant and Orica riders at 250 metres, Degenkolb opens the sprint, and Caleb Ewan sweeps around him inside the last fifty. A maiden Grand Tour stage in a maiden Grand Tour.

The result