Marc Soler has put an end to Spain’s two year long wait for a stage winner at a Grand Tour as a late solo attack earned him victory on stage five of the Vuelta a Espana on Wednesday.
The Spanish also won a Vuelta stage in 2020.
Spaniard Soler (UAE Team Emirates) attacked from a chasing group to catch and pass British Jake Stewart (Groupama-FDJ) on the final climb and stayed away to cross the line four seconds ahead of the chasers including Frenchman Molard (Groupama-FDJ).
Molard, thanks to three bonus points he claimed on the final climb of Alto del Vivero, will take a slender two-second lead over Britain’s Fred Wright into stage six with Germany’s Nikias Arndt down from 1:09.
Soler appeared to have been in a tide bit of trouble on the final day climb having bridged across to the breakaway group, but he bursted in to the front with 2.5km of the ascent left.
Now, on Thursday, stage includes the first category one climb of this year’s race with a summit finish at San Miguel de Aguayo.
