Vuelta a Espana 2013 - Stage 5

The Vuelta a Espana continued today, and the sprinters in the peloton were finally rewarded for getting over the horrendously steep climbs of the first few days. Yes, a flat finish, the first of this year's race, and it came after a 174 kilometre jaunt from Sober to Lago de Sanabria. A breakaway did try to spoil the party, and it was the star of yesterday's who also starred today, Nicolas Edet of Cofidis. Joining him were Antonio Piedra (Caja Rural), Jurgen Van De Walle (Lotto-Belisol), Arnaud Courteille (FDJ), and Winner Anacona (Lampre-Merida). 

Despite gaining over ten minutes advantage in the stage, the possibility of the first real bunch kick of this Vuelta for the sprinters was too much to pass up for the peloton, and the remnants of the break were brought back with around one kilometre to go.

It was never really a fight between the sprinters, it was Australian Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE) who always looked the strongest, and after sprinting into the lead with 500 metres to go, he had enough breathing space to freewheel across the line and raise his arms in victory. It is Matthews' first grand tour stage victory, and he was tipped for big things in the race after picking up two stages along with the points jersey in the recent Tour of Utah.

He had also picked up a third place on yesterday's stage behind Daniel Moreno (Katusha) and Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Leopard). Matthews stated after the stage; "They [Orica-GreenEDGE] put all their effort into today and I'm just glad to finish it off. It didn't quite work out as I had hoped yesterday, but I knew today we had more of a chance so we put all our eggs in the basket."

Elsewhere, there was no change in the general classification. Giro d'Italia champion Vincenzo Nibali keeps his three second advantage on Chris Horner of RadioShack.