Alejandro Valverde of Movistar is the new leader of the Volta a Catalunya after victory on stage five.
The fifth stage was a 182km stage from Valis to Lo Port saw the peloton altogether for the first fifty kilometres.
Then a break started on the Coll de Fatxes with 110km remaining and In the group were Rafa Valls (Lotto Soudal), Cyril Gautier (AG2R La Mondiale), Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo), Dario Cataldo (Astana), Daniel Navarro (Cofidis), Robert Kisterlovski (Katusha-Alpecin), Damien Howson (Orica-Scott), Laurens de Plus (Quick-Step Floors), Pierre Rolland (Cannondale-Drapac), Tsgabu Grmay (Bahrain-Merida), Antonio Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates), Hector Saez (Caja Rural), Aldemar Reyes (Manzana Postobon), Nick van der Lijk (Roompot - Nederlandse Loterij).
They took a lead of 5.20 which meant that Dario Cataldo of Astana was the new leader on the road.
Pierre Rolland took both the sprints before the gap dropped to 1.50 with fifty kilometres and by the time they had reached Tortosa the break was over.
Team Sky and then Trek Segafredo took turns on the front with the race leader Tejay Van Garderen unable to follow, Pantano and his Trek Segafredo team mate Alberto Contador turned the screw and tried to get some distance between them and the peloton.
Team Sky's Chris Froome and Alejandro Valverde of Movistat got to them as did Adam Yates and Soler and in the final kilometre, Valverde passed them all to take the victory on the final climb in a time of 4.14.52, some thirteen seconds ahead of Chris Froome, with Contador third, Adam Yates fifth, Dan Martin sixth and Cannondale Drapac's Brit Hugh McCarty in eighth place.
The win gave Alejandro Valverde the lead of the race by 21 seconds from Chris Froome and he said; "It's a victory and a leader's jersey really special because of everything that happened during the last few days.
"Things like those, outside the racing itself, are not ones that we like. In the end, we managed to get people excited and happy about our racing, and that's what counts."
By Kev Monks for Digital Sports Group
Source: DSG
