Stage 5 of
Volta a Comunitat Valenciana, the last stage of the race, went to
Rui Costa.
The veteran Intermarché-Circus-Wanty rider managed to be with the best after La Frontera climb. He was the only one to have legs to catch a powerful attack by
Thymen Arensman on the last km. He beat him in a sprint winning also the general classification.
Samuele Battistella, Alessandro De Marchi and Davide Gabburo formed the early breakaway.
The trio went together until La Frontera climb where Batisttella managed to get an advantage over the others. He was being caught by the favourites only at the top of the climb.
In the peloton, Bora-Hansgrohe pulled along La Frontera climb and managed to reduce the group, with their leader Alexander Vlasov trying to attack the overall lead putting a strong pace that made the creation of an 8 riders group with GC leader Giulio Ciccone being there.
After the climb, it was flat terrain until the end. The group consisting of Giulio Ciccone , Tao Geoghegan Hart, Pello Bilbao , Alexander Vlasov, Brandon McNulty and Marc Soler, Rui Costa, Alex Aranburu and Samuele Batisttella tried their best to keep the short lead they had.
The 2nd group also had important GC riders like Mikel Landa and his team tried their best to catch the first group. All ended in a cat and mouse game with Thymen Arensman launching an attack close to the last km that was only matched by Rui Costa.
In a sprint between the two, Rui Costa won over the Dutch rider with Samuele Battistella finishing 3rd. Rui Costa managed to get time enough to conquer also the overall of Volta a Comunitat Valenciana,