Simon Clarke celebrates in Vuelta a España, Rudy Molard takes Red Jersey
Aug 29 2018 10:35 pm CET
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EF Education First's Simon Clarke has taken the victory at the fifth stage of the Vuelta a España. The rider was part of the breakaway and outsprinted Bauke Mollema and Alessandro De Marchi in a sprint of three.
The riders went through a 188.7-kilometre route that included one climb of the third category, one of the second category and a flat finish. The stage had several attempts of a breakaway until around 25 riders managed to get away.
The group included riders like Valerio Conti, Sepp Kuss, Alessandro De Marchi, Bauke Mollema, Matteo Trentin and Jai Hindley, among others. With 77 kilometres to go, De Marchi and Rossetto attacked from the front group and created a considerable gap with the rest.
Kilometres later, Rossetto dropped and De Marchi (BMC) was joined by Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) and Simon Clarke (EF Education First). Behind them, Davide Villella (Astana), Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ) and Floris De Tier (LottoNL-Jumbo) formed a group of chasers to try to catch the trio in front.
Despite having mechanical problems, Mollema managed to rejoin the men in front to face the last kilometres of the stage. In the peloton, Sky took control of the speed to try to defend the Red Jersey of Michal Kwiatkowski from the threat that Molard represented.
The trio arrived to the finish line with the chasers almost catching them and Clarke showed to be the better sprinter by crossing the finish line ahead of Mollema and De Marchi.
Molard crossed the finish line eight seconds behind Clarke and took the overall lead from Kwiatkowski.
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