La Vuelta (st. 5)

Mas, López -with some bruises-, Valverde get back from serious crash in the bunch with 11km to go; sit now in 4th, 5th, 6th overall before Thursday's uphill finish in Cullera.

Even with the usual stress and the permanent threat of crosswinds, stage five of the 2021 La Vuelta -184km from Tarancón to Albacete- seemed like bound to a classic sprint finish and a calm end for the GC contenders. However, a serious crash with just 11km remaining changed the race lead -with Kenny Elissonde (TFS) inheriting the red jersey from Rein Taaramäe (IWG)- and putting the Movistar Team into some difficulty, fortunately solved quickly.

Having covered their leaders and kept a good position all day, the Telefónica-backed squad was left behind with most of his team-mates, as the incident happened into the first third of the peloton. Mas, López and Valverde were still able to bridge back, with help from his team-mates and some respite from the front group, and finished the stage with the same time as the day’s winner, Jasper Philipsen (AFC).

The ‘trio of aces’ from the Blue outfit now holds fourth, fifth and sixth overall, at 20″, 26″ and 32″ from the race lead. Thursday will be another important day for them as they tackle the uphill finish of the Montaña de Cullera (1.9km at almost 9%), preceded by a fast approach. At this finish, Valverde already placed 2nd almost two years ago during the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana.

The injury report was a short one: only some minor bruises to the right-hand side -with no road rash- and a blow to his hand, not serious, for Miguel Ángel López, who impacted with a bike at the crash. Both him and his team-mates rolled back to the Movistar Team hotel in Albacete on their bikes.

REACTION / Imanol Erviti:

“It was so tense, there were some cross / headwinds and, I don’t know how, we just went down in the middle of that pile-up. In our case, we were lucky enough to be able to brake much, and even if some of us were dropped and had to make an extra effort to close the gap, things were taken a bit easier at the front and we were able to join back and finish safely.

“In La Vuelta, every single day is an exam to your focus; all routes have some tricks. This was a stage where things like this could happen. It will be quite a different finish tomorrow, yet the approach to the last climb is also difficult, with the wind, trying to position yourself well – it will be another tense one. We did well at Picón Blanco, and I hope we can do well in this Vuelta and enjoy it.”

Cover picture (c): Photo Gomez Sport