Miguel Angel Lopez has moved into the overall lead at the Vuelta a Espana after Angel Madrazo took out stage five. In the first summit finish of the Grand Tour, Madrazo broke away with 200m of the stage remaining to claim the win ahead of Jetse Bol and Jose Herrada.
Lopez finished in fourth place and that was enough to wrestle the red jersey away from Ireland’s Nicolas Roche in the general classification standings. Lopez is 14 seconds ahead of pre-race favourite Primoz Roglic, with Nairo Quintana in third, 23 seconds behind, and Alejandro Valverde a further 5 seconds behind in fourth.
“Today was important because the time trial is getting close,” Lopez told reporters afterwards. “I knew that the start of the climb wasn’t so hard, so I decided to wait until there were only the leaders left, and finally we got to a point when only Roglič and Valverde remained.
“I decided to see how they would respond, I only got a few seconds, but it’s better than nothing.” The race resumes in the mountains today for the 199km stage seven, which starts at Roba de Murielos before finishing at the top of Puerto de Ares.
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