Lutsenko grabs glory on Alcossebre summit as Froome stays in red
Astana rider Alexey Lutsenko broke clear on the uphill finish at Alcossebre to claim victory on stage five of the Vuelta a Espana, with Great Britain’s Chris Froome extending his overall lead for Team Sky.
Kazakh Lutsenko fended off Dimension Data’s Merhawi Kudus to move ahead on the assault up Ermita Santa Lucia to cross the line some 42 seconds clear on the Spanish tour’s first summit finish.
Spaniard Marc Soler took third for Movistar, 56 seconds behind Lutsenko.
Froome, who is aiming to become just the third man to win the Vuelta and Tour de France in the same year, was more than four minutes down on the leaders at the line, but extended his slim advantage in the general classification standings.
A breakway group of 16 riders pushed the pace over the 175.7km stage from Benicassim, with Marco Haller (Katusha-alpecin) joining Lutsenko in a late surge on the descent of the Alto de la Serratella, but the Austrian could not last the distance during the closing 45km.
Frome’s overall lead now stands at 10 seconds from American Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) and a further 11 seconds from Esteban Chaves, the Colombian Orica-scott rider. Ireland’s Nicolas Roche is in fourth place, but the BMC racer is only 13 seconds off the red jersey.
Orica-scott duo Adam and Simon Yates are eighth and ninth, 50 seconds and 1min 09secs behind respectively.
Today’s sixth stage will run over 204.4km from Villarreal to Sagunto and includes one second category climb.