Alberto Contador won his second successive stage with victory in the fifth stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico.
As the race edged towards the final stage on the Adriatic coast at San Benedetto del Tronto on Tuesday, stage five was 192kms long and from Amatrice to Guardiagrele with a finish ends with the 'Muro di Guardiagrele, a 610m long wall that climbs at a near vertical average of 22.2% and at some points 30%'.
The attacks on stage which started without Team Sky's Richie Porte who had withdrawn due to illness, started early with Benjamin King (Garmin Sharp), Adam Hansen (Lotto Belisol), David De La Cruz (NetAPP Endura),getting away.
By the fifty kilometres gone mark, they had been joined by Matthias Brandle (IAM), Andriy Grivko (Astana), Yaroslav Popovych (Trek Racing Factori), Luca Paolini (Katusha), and Simon Geschke (Giant Shimano) and were up the road with a lead of eleven minutes ahead of the peloton which included race leader Michal Kwiatkowski who went into the day with a sixteen second lead over stage four winner Alberto Contador.
The gap continued to go out, maxing at twelve minutes after 73kms. Tinkoff Saxo working for Alberto Contador started to slowly but surely reel in the escapers
Their lead was down to 6.30 when Brandle took the intermediate sprint but dropped back leaving Ben King and Simon Geschke out front.with 36kms remaining.
Contador and Quintana tried to escape the clutches of the peloton and were brought back. But with 32kms to go, Contador went and Kwiatkowski failed to to react.
Contador took a thirty second lead putting him in to the virtual lead of the race as Ben King was first over the Passo Lanciano.
With fifteen kilometres to go, Contador, now being kept company by Adam Hansen, was 33 seconds behind the leaders.
Seven kilometres later and Contador was chasing after Ben King, the only rider left from the original group of escapers. King hit the final climb but Contador was closing and was clear with 1200m to go with Simon Geschke and Ben King just behind.
With 250m to go, Contador made his move and won the race in 4.54.52 beating off the challenges of Simon Geschke, Ben King, Adam Hansen, Jean-Christophe Peraud, Giampaolo Caruso, Roman Kreuziger, Domenico Pozzovivo, David Arredondo Moreno and Rinaldo Nocentini.
Going into Stage 6, Contador leads the race by two minutes and eight seconds from Movistar's Nairo Quintana.