Michael Matthews of Orica Green Edge won the fifth stage of the Vuelta a España.
A 168.4km stage from Sober to Lago de Sanabria started with Antonio Piedra (Caja Rural), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Jurgen Van De Walle (Lotto Belisol), Arnaud Corteille (FDJ) and Winner Anacona (Lampre-Merida) getting clear after eight kilometres.
They had a lead over the peloton containing race leader Vincenzo Nibali and King Of The Mountains and Combinated Jersey leader Nicholas Roche of 10.25 going up the category three Alto do Covelo with 85kms to go.
Winner Anacona was the first over the summit as the riders took to a steadily climbing road Gudiña and towards the second climb - the Alto de Padornelo, on a warm and pleasant day.
The gap was down to 8.20 with 75kms to go and another two minutes were shaved off a further twelve kilometres up the road.
The first intermediate sprint of the day was next and Jurgen Van De Walle won the sprint for the full points before the escapers started on the 13km long Alto de Padornelo climb.
The weather was now showery as Edet took the three points for being first over the summit ahead of Anacona.
Going into the final twenty kilometres of the stage, the five escapers were 2.16 clear of a peloton now in full flight.
On flatish roads, Arnaud Corteille took the sprint at Puebla de Sanabria with 12kms to go as the five which included Antonio Piedra of Caja Rural, who won the day's Combatitivity Award, tried to stay clear.
Their lead was only worth 49 seconds when Corteille of FDJ wearing number 102, decided to go for broke with just over 9.4 kilometres remaining.
The crowds were out in force to see Corteille blast through one village and head towards the outskirts of Lago de Sanabria. Jurgen Van De Walle put in a great ride and caught up to the FDJ rider with six kilometres remaining.
Two and a half kilometres later, they were caught and Pablo Urtasun of Euskatel in their final Vuelta a España took over before WOrld Champion Philppe Gilbert hit the front.
Argos Shimano took over and in a cracking bunch sprint, Michael Matthews of Orica Green Edge won in a time of 4.28.22 at an average speed of 38.9km/h ahead of Richeze, Meersman, Arndt, Farrar, Boasson Hagen, Roux, Henderson, Ratto and Bole.
Vincenzo Nibali of Astana continues to lead the race overall with a three second lead over Chris Horner and eight seconds over Nichola Roche.
Speaking to La Vuelta.com, Matthews said: "This is the first Grand Tour I’ve ever done, so I wasn’t expecting to win, I was hoping to win. There’s a difference between having good form and pulling off a victory. "Twenty other guys could have won today. It took a lot of devotion from my team-mates to take me there.
"Former rider Julian Dean now works for us. He went to see the last 20 kilometres so we knew exactly what to do. It took pressure off. We weren’t riding blind, otherwise I wouldn’t have had the win today. This one is for the team for sure. They were riding 100% for me.
"It’s been a dream to race for an Australian team, but coming from Rabobank to a new team, I had to find my way into the team to be able to have the opportunity to win a race. In the first part of the season, I worked for the team, now they’re really backing me and I want to keep this momentum rolling."
Picture copyright of Unipublic/Graham Watson
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