Vuelta a Espana 2021 - Jasper Philipsen doubles up to take back green as Rein Taaramae crashes out of red

It took a while for some late wind to blow a little life into Wednesday’s seemingly interminable 184km Stage 5 over the flat planes of Castille-La Mancha – but once the action came, it did so thick and fast, and produced a wholesale change in three of the four jersey competitions.

A crash near the front of the peloton with 12km remaining saw red jersey Rein Taaramae hit the deck for the second day running – the Estonian eventually crossing the finish well down to concede his race lead to the Frenchman Kenny Elissonde.

Victory on the day went to the Belgian Jasper Philipsen who benefited from a strong lead-out from his Alpecin-Fenix team to get the better of Dutchman Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-QuickStep) after a scrappy finish in Albacete. Philipsen’s second win of the race saw the 23-year-old take the green jersey back off the shoulders of Tuesday’s winner Jakobsen, who now trails his rival by one slender point after opting not to contest the intermediate sprint.

Italy’s Alberto Dainese (Team DSM), Colombia’s Juan Sebastian Molano (UAE Team Emirates) and Belgium’s Piet Allegaert (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) completed the top five, as Frenchman Arnaud Demare lost touch with his Groupama-FDJ train and faded to a disappointing tenth place.

Stage 3 winner Taaramae came home over two minutes back to plummet out of the top 10 but the veteran 34-year-old was able to put in an appearance on the podium by taking over the polka dot jersey from Elissonde, who had worn it for two days despite Taaramae’s KOM lead. In a new-look GC, the diminutive climber from Trek-Segafredo now leads Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) by five seconds, with Frenchman Lilian Calmejane (Ag2R-Citroen) up to third at 10 seconds.

Besides Taaramae, the big loser of the day was Frenchman Romain Bardet of Team DSM, the highest profile of the fallers in the large pile-up which split the pack in the closing moments of the stage. His jersey torn to pieces, the battered, bloodied and bruised Bardet came home over 12 minutes down, having started the day in 14th place and in the thick of the GC battle.

It took the crash to inject some life into an otherwise drab stage after the expected crosswinds failed to play a significant role. Three Spanish Grand Tour debutants – Pelayo Sanchez (Burgos-BH), Oier Lazkano (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Xabier Mikel Azparren (Euskaltel-Euskadi) – attacked from the gun to build up a maximum lead of seven minutes over the pack.

Lazkano took the spoils at the intermediate sprint at La Roda with 50km remaining before Philipsen pipped Demare when the peloton passed through two minutes in arrears. Jakobsen’s decision not to contest the sprint and focus on the final was understandable given the rewards he reaped on Tuesday – but the 13 points pocketed by Philipsen, the Belgian Stage 2 winner, put him into a position whereby a win would see him return to the top of the green summit.

A sharp turn exiting the town of Barrax with 30km remaining pre-empted a frantic and tense rush to the front of the pack, with the teams of the top sprinters and GC riders on red alert owing to the exposed roads and potential sidewinds.

But despite Deceuninck-QuickStep and Groupama-FDJ testing the waters – followed by an opportunistic dig by Astana duo, Luis Leon Sanchez and Aleksandr Vlasov – it was all a bit of a damp squib as Ineos Grenadiers could combine with EF Education-Nippo and Jumbo-Visma to snuff out the threat.

With the pace high but the tension low, a touch of shoulders in the pack knocked a couple of riders down and caused a huge ripple effect just to the right of the white jersey of Egan Bernal, Ineos’ Colombian Giro d’Italia champion somewhat fortuitously emerging unscathed from a pile-up which ended Bardet’s GC hopes, prised the red jersey from Taaramae’s shoulders, and saw Spanish veteran Mikel Nieve (Team BikeExchange) take a bad knock.

After an initial easing up of pace as the majority of the peloton regrouped, the tempo returned on the run into Albacete ahead of a messy sprint which saw QuickStep’s Jakobsen boxed in and needing to return from far. The Dutchman ran out of road as Philipsen put in a flawless ride to the line to snatch his second win of the Vuelta and return to the top of the green jersey standings by one point.

With Elissonde the new race leader, La Vuelta continues on Thursday with the 158km Stage 6 from Requena, a downhill and then pan-flat ride which concludes with the short but sharp 2km climb of the Alto de la Montana de Cullera where defending champion Roglic will be favourite to return into red.

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