Vuelta a España: Marc Soler wins stage five as Rudy Molard takes red jersey

Marc Soler ended Spain’s two-year wait for a stage winner at a Grand Tour as a late solo attack earned him victory on stage five of the Vuelta a España on Wednesday.

Frenchman Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ) took the overall lead after a hilly 187.2km ride from Irun to Bilbao. UAE-Team Emirates rider Soler attacked from a chasing group to catch and pass Molard’s British teammate, Jake Stewart on the final climb and stayed away to cross the line four seconds clear.

Molard finished in that chasing group and seized the red jersey from Jumbo-Visma’s grasp. The defending champion, Primoz Roglic, took the overall lead on Tuesday but finished back in the peloton and is now fifth, four minutes and nine seconds back. That will be of little concern to the Jumbo-Visma team at this early stage, with the Slovenian still favourite to claim overall victory.

Thanks to the three bonus points he claimed on the final climb of Alto del Vivero, Molard takes a slender two-second lead over Britain’s Fred Wright (Bahrain-Victorious) into stage six with Germany’s Nikias Arndt 1min 9sec behind.

Soler appeared to have been in trouble on the day’s final climb having bridged across to the breakaway group, but he burst to the front with 2.5km of the ascent left. It still looked as though he would be caught on the descent into Bilbao but he maintained a slender lead to claim the second Vuelta stage win of his career.

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Thursday’s stage includes the first category one climb of this year’s race with a summit finish at San Miguel de Aguayo. Earlier in the day the race reported its first Covid-19 case, with Daan Hoole (Trek-Segafredo) ruled out.