Vuelta a España 2015: Aussie rider Caleb Ewan wins first Grand Tour stage, Tom Dumoulin takes overall lead

Australian rider Caleb Ewan grabbed his first Grand Tour win in the fifth stage of the Vuelta a España on Thursday. Ewan outduelled Giant-Alpecin’s John Degenkolb and Tinkoff-Saxo’s Peter Sagan in a sprint at the end of the 167.3 kilometre Rota-Alcala route.

Ewan, one of the brightest young sprint prospect in cycling, took the first Grand Tour win of his career after beating Degenkolb into second place and Sagan into third in Alcala de Guadaira. The 21-year-old Aussie said he was happy with his stage five win and it was by far the biggest victory of his cycling career. Ewan added that to beat two of the best sprinters in the world means a lot to him.

"My team-mate went to the front and I knew it was a little bit too early, so I dropped back a few spots on to Degenkolb's wheel. He went probably at the right time, but I waited and waited and got over him on the last steep bit,” Ewan said, reports Sky Sports.

The Australian youngster has recently been accused of being the instigator of a crash during stage two of the Spanish Vuelta. Vincenzo Nibali has blamed Ewan for the crash that led to the Italian rider’s disqualification from the race after TV images showed he was being towed by Astana’s team car.

Giant-Alpecin’s Tom Dumoulin claimed the top spot of the leaderboard after finishing two seconds later in a pack, gaining a one-second advantage over Orica-GreenEDGE’s Esteban Chaves. Team Sky’s Chris Froome gained six seconds on his rivals and climbed seventh overall in general classification standings.

Dumoulin was second overall at the start of the day, but subsequently took a one-second lead over Chaves. Dumoulin admitted he had not been aware of the split in the peloton and thought Chaves was still the race leader until he heard from the team radio that he had the red jersey.

"I delayed the podium ceremony a little bit because I was already going down towards the bus and I was already pedalling and drinking my recovery bottle, and then I heard on the radio that I had the red jersey,” Dumoulin said.

(Courtesy of BBC) Stage five result:

1. Caleb Ewan (Aus/Orica)- three hours, 57 minutes and 28 seconds

2. John Degenkolb (Ger/Giant) Same time

3. Peter Sagan (Svk/Tinkoff - Saxo) Same time

4. Jempy Druecker (Lux/BMC Racing) Same time

5. Jose Joaquin Rojas (Spa/Movistar) +2secs

6. Kristian Sbaragli (Ita/Team MTN) +2secs

7. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita/AG2R) +2secs

8. Daniel Moreno (Spa/Katusha) +2secs

9. Tosh Van der Sande (Bel/Lotto) +2secs

10. Nikolas Maes (Bel/Etixx - Quick-Step) +2secs

11. Tom Van Asbroeck (Bel/LottoNL) +2secs