For the second straight stage, the day's racing at the Vuelta a Espana ended in a bunch sprint and once again it was Kaden Groves who emerged victorious.
Stage five from Morella to Burriana is a tricky one. A day for the sprinters on paper however, as is classic at the Vuelta a Espana, it features the 'rompe-piernas' terrain which will throughout the day benefit attackers and make the pure fast men suffer in the small but repetitive climbs.
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Easing the potential stress of the peloton, just one rider managed to go up the road in the day's breakaway. Eric Antonio Fagundez of Burgos-BH, the Uruguayan national time-trial champion, being the lone leader.
Although Fagundez's lead had at one point stretched to over five minutes, as soon as the peloton began to up the pace behind, that dropped drastically.
Before the Uruguayan could reach the top of the only categorised climb of the day, a counter-attacking Eduardo Sepúlveda bridged the small gap and then dropped Fagundez, taking maximum points and extending his lead in the King of the Mountains classification.
Although Sepulveda rode the descent out front, it never looked like he had any real intention to try and hold off the bunch. With just under 40km to go, he was swallowed up and the peloton was now the front of the race.
The pace began to really ramp up as the riders entered the final 15km and an intermediate sprint with a maximum of six bonus seconds on offer neared.
The GC riders came out to play in the sprint, with Evenepoel taking the six bonus seconds ahead of yesterday's stage winner, Kaden Groves who of course, was more interested in the points on offer for the Green Jersey classification.
With a number of roundabouts in the final 6km, the battle for positioning at the front of the race was incredibly fierce as both sprint trains and GC teams looked to keep their leader in optimum position.
At an agonising 3.1km to go, there was a crash that saw plenty of riders caught up, including Lotto Dstny's stage hope, Milan Menten.
Into the final kilometre and it was Alpecin-Deceuninck on the front of the peloton. Once Groves launched his sprint he looked like taking a dominant victory but Filippo Ganna, coming from behind forced a photo finish with a brilliant effort. There was no stopping Groves though, two in two days for the sprint ace.
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Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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Etapa 5⃣ Y el ganador de hoy es... And the winner is... 🏆🇦🇺 @kaden_groves - @AlpecinDCK #LaVuelta23
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