Simon Clarke wins Vuelta Stage 5, Rudy Molard takes the overall lead

Simon Clarke has won Stage 5 of the Vuelta today to give his EF Education First-Drapac team its first UCI WorldTour victory of 2018. On an afternoon when the breakaway prevailed, Rudy Molard of Groupama-FDJ takes over the race lead from Team Sky’s Michal Kwiatkowski.

It’s Clarke’s second career stage win at the Vuelta, the previous one coming in 2012  in a summit finish at Valdezcaray.

On today’s 188.7-kilometre stage from Granada, the Australian was one of 25 riders that finally got clear a third of the way in after a frantic opening to the stage.

It was a strong group, containing riders including recently crowned European champion Matteo Trentin of Quick Step cycling, Bahrain-Merida’s Franco Pellizotti, a former winner of the Giro d’Italia, and Trek-Segafredo’s Bauke Mollema.

With less than 90 kilometres remaining, BMC Racing’s Alessandro De Marchi and Stephane Rossetto of Cofidis attacked from the break.

De Marchi managed to drop his companion with 65 kilometres left, and would subsequently be joined by Mollema and Clarke ahead of the Category 2 climb of the Alto El Marchal, crested with 26.5 kilometres to go.

The attacks among the front trio vying for the stage win started 6.5 kilometres from the line in Roquetas de Mar, the first initiated by Mollema, the three riders each having unsuccessful attempts to go solo then playing cat-and-mouse as they entered the final kilometre.

By now the Molard group was 15 seconds behind but proved unable to make the catch, with De Marchi, playing an unwilling leadout as he was forced to launch his sprint from the front, finishing third as both  Clarke and Mollema came round him.

Behind, Team Sky had eased off the pace in the group containing the red jersey, coming across the line 4 minutes 55 seconds after the winner, putting Molard into the overall lead with an advantage of 1 minute 1 second over Kwiatkowski, who drops to second on the General Classification.