Etixx Quick Step's Gianni Meersman has won the fifth stage of the Vuelta a España.
After stage four there was a new leader and it was BMC's Darwin Atapuma who led the riders out on this 171.3 kilometre stage from Viveiro to Lugo.
Tiago Machado (Katusha) and Julien Morice (Direct Energie) were first to get away and the pair were soon 4.30 clear.
They were able to extend their lead and with a hundred kilometres to go, they were 6.40 ahead.
It had been raining but the sun was now out and with 75kms left, Machado decided that he would be better off on his own and he took the intermediate sprint and the points on the day's climb - the category 3 Marco de Álvare.
Machado who started the day 8.15 down, kept going with a lead of 4.30 with 45kms left and Thomas De Gendt of Lotto Soudal now chasing.
De Gendt was pulled back in by the peloton but the speed was up and the gap was down to 1.38 with just over thirty kilometres to go.
With 14.5kms left and after 157km out front, Tiago Machdo was reeled in by the Team Sky led peloton.
There was 2.5kms left when Simon Clarke of Cannodale kicked off followed by Philippe Gilbert on a technical finish which saw a LottoNL-Jumbo rider in Steven Kruijswijk taken out along with a number of riders.
They were caught just before the flam rouge. Gilbert tried to attck again but the sprinters had them and it was Etixx Quick Step's Gianni Meersman who won in 4.16.41 ahead of Fabio Felline, Kévin Reza, Luis Leon Sanchez, Zico Waeytens, Alejandro Valverde, Romain Hardy, Jean-Pierre Drucker, Kenneth Van Bilsen and José Gonçalves of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
Darwin Atapum keeps his lead in the race.