Simon Clarke wins Stage 5 as Rudy Molard takes red jersey – La Vuelta

2018 Vuelta a Espana

Stage 5

Australia’s Simon Clarke won a thrilling three-way sprint to win Stage 5 of La Vuelta as fellow escapee Rudy Molard of France caused an upset by taking over the race lead from Poland’s Michal Kwiatkowski.

Six years after his maiden stage win in the Vuelta, veteran Clarke took a belated second success by winning an Andalusian game of cat, mouse and cheese with Dutchman Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) and Italy’s Alessandro De Marchi (BMC) – securing in the process a first WorldTour win this season for his EF Education First-Drapac team.

Frenchman Molard (Groupama-FDJ) took sixth place in the stage at the back of a chasing trio which came home eight seconds down – but almost five minutes ahead of the peloton.

Trailing overnight leader Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) by 3’46” going into the sweltering 188.7km stage, 28-year-old Molard took the red jersey from the Pole’s shoulders on yet another unpredictable day of racing over rolling terrain in southern Spain.

Molard, a winner of a Paris-Nice stage earlier in the season, now leads Kwiatkowski by 1’01” in the general classification after Team Sky appeared to make the tactical decision of giving up the race lead.

Clarke’s winning move came after the Australian joined forces with Mollema to reel in lone leader De Marchi on a descent ahead of the decisive final climb, more than 50km from the finish.

All three experienced riders were part of a large 25-man group that took a long time to form over rolling terrain. But with four Vuelta stage wins between them – two for De Marchi and one apiece for Clarke and Mollema – the experience of the leaders shone through.

With a chasing trio of Molard, Davide Villella (Astana) and Floris de Tier (LottoNL-Jumbo) closing in on the home straight, Clarke kept his cool and channelled his experience on the boards in a tussle for which he was always going to be the favourite.
“I grew up on the track since I was 15 and it was just like track racing. I know that De Marchi is fast but it was such a long stage and it’s so hard to sprint after that. Even I was cramping. Mollema attacked and I just rode through it and backed myself,” he said.

“I was so worried that they would catch us from behind. But in that situation you have to be as cold as ice and you have to be willing to lose the win. I was and I came out on top.”

High temperatures forced the organisers to bring forward the start earlier than scheduled but the heat did not deter the riders as the race covered a staggering 47.8km over lumpy terrain in the first hour as the route skirted the mountainous Sierra Nevada national park.

Numerous attempts to form a break – including digs from the world champion Peter Sagan and the out-of-form Vincenzo Nibali – came to nothing.

Rudy Molard dons the famous red jersey.

In fact, it was not until over 60km of racing that we saw a large break of 25 riders open up a gap over the peloton, which was being controlled by the Sky team of Kwiatkowski – one of two teams, alongside Quick-Step Floors, who were not represented up the road in the move.

There was an attempt at a shake out on the Cat.3 Alto de Orgiva as Frenchman Stephane Rossetto (Cofidis) rode clear alongside the Italian De Marchi, with another Italian, Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates) in pursuit.

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