Primoz Roglic, winner yesterday, slid from second place overall in the País Vasco’s queen stage today. He and George Bennett could not follow the best on the final climb, where Alejandro Valverde won and took the overall lead. Bennett finished 16th and Roglic placed 21st in the fifth stage.

"It was quite a disappointment," said Sports Director Grischa Niermann. "Primoz Roglic did not have his best form today. George Bennett was fine, but had bad luck. He punctured a tyre and Floris De Tier gave him his wheel. The change took a while and when we arrived, we gave him another bike. He reached the pack, but had to chase quite hard. At the same time, he switched back to its original bike. On the climb, he lacked that energy that he spent in the chase."

The stage began with an escape of 18 riders, including team LottoNL-Jumbo’s Juan José Lobato. The peloton, however, did not race slowly and the breakaway was caught halfway in the stage of 140 kilometres. Several riders tried again, but the peloton kept riding in a high pace. At the start of the final climb, the GC men began going and thinned the large group.

Bennett finished 58 seconds back and Roglic at 1-08 minutes behind Valverde. Tomorrow, they will race a time trial of 27.7 kilometres around Eibar.

"The gap to the podium places is too big, but we go for the win in the time trial," said Niermann. "A top ten ranking in the overall is still possible."