Vuelta a Espana 2017, stage five: Chris Froome 'surprised' to extend his lead on first summit finish after Alexey Lutsenko wins on the day

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Chris Froome said he was “surprised” to see rivals Romain Bardet, Vincenzo Nibali and Fabio Aru lose time on the first of nine summit finishes at this year’s Vuelta a España, a short but steep 3.4km climb up to Alcossebre on the eastern Mediterranean coast.

 

The Team Sky rider extended his advantage over second placed Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) to 10 seconds as Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) won convincingly from the day’s breakaway.

But it was the damage that Froome did to some of his rivals for the leader's red jersey which was of greater import in the overall scheme of things. Aru (Astana) lost 11 secs to Froome on the final climb, which had an average gradient of 10 per cent and ramps of up to 20 per cent, the same as Adam Yates (Orica-Scott), while Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) shipped 26sec. Bardet (Ag2r-La Mondiale), who finished on the podium at last month’s Tour de France, gave up 49secs.

 

“I’m surprised to see Vincenzo Nibali and Fabio Aru lose some time today and Romain Bardet, but it’s a long race and today was just a 3km climb so I imagine it will be a different race once we get into the high mountains,” said Froome, adding that he felt his own form was where he hoped it would be.

 

“I’m really glad to have come through from the Tour in the shape that I hoped to be in for the start of the Vuelta.”

 

The main threat to the Briton at this stage would appear to be coming from Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott), the team-mate of the Yates twins Adam and Simon, who along with Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) was the one rider who was able to stay with Froome when he attacked the general classification group on the final climb.

“Esteban Chaves seems to be one of the strongest climbers in this year’s Vuelta as well as obviously Alberto Contador who did a good ride today,” Froome said. “Tejay van Garderen is still in the mix and Nicolas Roche is still up there so BMC have got a couple of options to play with.”

The 175.7km stage from Benicàssim to Alcoseebre looked ripe for a breakaway and so it proved with a large group getting away early on. The peloton kept it at arm’s length for most of the day but – with none of the break a threat to the overall – allowed it to go on the final category two climb.

Alexey Lutsenko celebrates as he crosses the line to win stage five CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES

After various attacks and counter-attacks, Marco Haller (Katusha-Alpecin) and Lutsenko emerged on the front with a gap of around 30secs to Merhawi Kudus (Dimension Data) and Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r La Mondiale). Lutsenko then dropped Haller and Kudus did the same to Gougeard but the Eritrean was unable to catch the Kazakhstani.

 

Behind them, the bunch stayed together until the foot of the climb where Froome began to test his rivals legs.

“I think if you had said at the beginning of the stage this would be the situation at the finish, I would have definitely have signed to agree to that,” he admitted.

“Looking at the time gaps now, GC is definitely taking a bit more shape and if you think there’s just a 3km climb to the finish I can definitely be happy with that and the job that my team-mates did to set that up.”

Thursday’s stage is another mountainous one – over 200km – from Vila-Real to Segunt.

 

Source: Click

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