Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol 2025 Stage 5

February 23, 2025 Almost all of the 2,600M of climbing is front loaded within the first 95KM of the 168KM stage. The route leaves Benahavís and starts climbing the Puerto del Madroño. It is a massive 20KM climb that averages nearly 5%. If a break goes here, it will certainly be a strong one. The Puerto del Espino is the last mountain to summit in this edition of the Ruta de Sol. Once over the top, they descend to San Pablo de Buceite to start the 50KM flat run to the finish in La Línea de la Concepción at the base of the Rock of Gibraltar. A large 20 rider break got away early. They were mainly together with 67KM to go and a gap of 2 minutes to the bunch at the start of the descent off of the Puerto del Espino. At one point, Johannes Staune-Mittet of Decathlon AG2R of the break had the virtual GC lead (2 minutes 43 seconds back at the start of the day) but UAE-XRG were riding and had it back under control. The break still had 90 seconds with 20KM to go but the cohesion was falling out and attacks started. A few kilometers later, a group of six formed including Thomas Gachignard of TotalEnergies, Tobias Johannessen of Uno-X Mobility, Giovanni Carboni of Unibet-Tietema Rockets, Iker Mintegi of Euskatel-Euskadi, and Jon Barrenetxea of Movistar and Staune-Mittet. They worked well and had a 1 minute lead on the rest of the break and 1 minute 35 seconds on the peloton with 8KM to go as they hit the coast along side the Alboran Sea under the shadow of the Rock of Gibraltar. With 6KM to go, Mintegi slid out on a dusty corner which took down Gachignard and forced Carboni to take a foot out. They all got going again but Staune-Mittet, Barrenetxea and Johannessen continued and left the others to chase. The peloton were in full chase mode led by Q36.5 and Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe. The leaders hit 3KM to go with the bunch just 1KM behind but the three leaders would not be caught. In the final, Staune-Mittet was getting worked over by Barrenetxea and Johannessen and he had to make a big effort to stay in contention. The trio were crawling through the last kilometer until Staune-Mittet made his final effort but he could not break the elastic. Barrenetxea came around with 200M to go which slightly boxed in Johannessen who waived a hand in protest. Barrenetxea was the faster man though and took the win ahead of the home crowd with Johannessen in second and Staune-Mittet in third. Pavel Sivakov of UAE-XRG kept safe and took the GC win. He finished the week up 23 seconds on Clément Berthet of Decathlon AG2R and and 26 seconds on Tom Pidcock of Q36.5.