Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana 2025 Stage 5

February 9, 2025 The sprinters finally get their one and only chance to shine in this edition of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana. The 104KM route is pan flat between Alfafar and Valencia but the fast men will have to be aware because the day has been stolen in the past by breakaways. Six riders got away early to form the break including Jokin Murguialday of Euskaltel-Euskadi, Sinuhé Fernández of Burgo Burpellet BH, Joan Bou of Caja Rural Seguros RGA, Quentin Bezza of Wagner-Bazin WB, Nathan Smith of Novo Nordisk, and Edgar David Cadena of Petrolike. Their lead was 1 minute 45 seconds with 65KM to go and being controlled by Lidl-Trek. The wind started to pick up with 45KM to go inciting the nerves of the riders as they passed through the rice fields and marshlands of Arrozales de la Albufera. UAE-XRG tried to split the race but Bahrain Victorious were attentive and things were calms again with 29KM to go. The route turned North with 22KM to go which settled the race into a more traditional chase and run to a sprint finish. Intermarché-Wanty, Lidl-Trek, and Alpecin-Deceuninck shared the load on the front but, with 13.5KM to go, a swarm from behind brought up other sprint and GC teams wanting a good position for the finale. The last of the break were caught with 4KM to go and the fight for the back of Lidl-Trek's sprint train began. Edward Theuns led Lidl-Trek through the last kilometer into 450M to go. He pulled off gently to the left to allow Simone Consonni and Jonathan Milan to hug the barriers to their right. Consonni dropped Milan off 150M from the line and no one was going to come around the Italian sprint machine. It was a picture perfect lead out and an ominous sign for others in future sprints this season. Jake Stewart of Israel-Premier Tech was best of the rest with Giovanni Lonardi of Polti-VisitMalta behind in third. Santiago Buitrago of Bahrain Victorious stayed safe to secure his first GC win of his career. João Almeida of UAE-XRG kept second with Buitrago's teammate Pello Bilbao rounding out the GC podium in third.