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2014 Vuelta a España Stage 5: John Degenkolb repeats in Ronda, Matthews keeps red

German sprinter John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) won his second consecutive stage in Wednesday’s Vuelta stage into Ronda. Michael Matthews (Australia/Orica-GreenEdge) kept his red jersey for another day.

A 182-km route in broiling heat with a Cat. 3 climb near the end wasn’t going to tempt a large breakaway. In fact, only Tony Martin (Germany/Omega Pharma-QuickStep) and Dutchman Pim Ligthart (Lotto-Belisol) were interested.

A mechanical with 70-km remaining sent Martin back to the peloton. Chris Froome (Great Britain/Sky) surprised his rivals by spurting out from the bunch to take two bonus seconds at an intermediate sprint.

Alberto Contador’s Tinkoff-Saxo had another surprise to spring. At the 40-km-to-go mark, the yellow gang whipped up the pace on wide, unprotected roads in a crosswind. The effort split the peloton, putting Ryder Hesjedal and his Garmin-Sharp teammates in the second group on the road.

TInkoff-Saxo applies pressure. Photo: Prensa Vuelta
TInkoff-Saxo applies pressure. Photo: Prensa Vuelta

The majority of the field came together on the opening slopes of the Cat. 3. Near the climb’s peak, King of the Mountains jersey wearer Luis Bonet (Spain/Caja-Rural) went for the points, but found himself vexed by the efforts of MTN-Qhubeka’s Sergio Pardilla (Spain). Bonet faltered so his teammate Amets Txurruka (Spain) had to bag the points himself.

BMC looked to put Philippe Gilbert (Belgium) into a launch position. Where the road rose to the line, Gilbert grabbed the wheel of a Giant-Shimano man and swung around him, but the green-clad German emerged on the left, squeezing Nacer Bouhanni (France/FDJ) into the barriers and taking the glory. Degenkolb added to his points competition lead.

Though Hesjedal’s teammate Dan Martin (Ireland) finished with the other GC men, the Canadian suffered a bad day and is out of contention for the win.

Thursday is the 2014 Vuelta’s first mountains stage and finishes on a Cat. 1 summit finish – the 4.6 km La Zubia climb at 7.8% average.

2014 Vuelta a España Stage 5

1) John Degenkolb (Germany/Giant-Shimano) 4:04:21
2) Nacer Bouhanni (France/FDJ) s.t.
3) Moreno Hofland (The Netherlands/Belkin) s.t.
90) Ryder Hesjedal (Canada/Garmin-Sharp) +3:19
116) Guillaume Boivin (Canada/Cannondale) +11:27

2014 Vuelta a España GC
1) Michael Matthews (Australia/Orica-GreenEdge) 17:35:05
2) Nairo Quintana (Colombia/Movistar) +0:13
3) Alejandro Valverde (Spain/Movistar) +0:20
46) Ryder Hesjedal (Canada/Garmin-Sharp) +4:15
133) Guillaume Boivin (Canada/Cannondale) +29:11

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