Tom Dumoulin takes over Vuelta lead as Irish remain in touch

Australia’s Caleb Ewan won the fifth stage of the Vuelta a Espana to clinch his first Grand Tour Stage as Dutch rider Tom Dumoulin became the new race leader.

But despite the change in leader, Nicolas Roche and Dan Martin remain in third and fourth places respectively after today's stage.

Caleb Ewan wins stage five of the Vuelta..! pic.twitter.com/jl71ICHTNT

— Graham Watson (@grahamwatson10) August 26, 2015

As expected, the predominantly flat stage ended in a sprint finish, with Ewan, competing in his first Tour of Spain, upsetting John Degenkolb and Peter Sagan to claim the biggest stage victory of his career.

Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) finished two seconds later than Ewan and was handed the race leader’s red jersey after taking time bonuses.

#LV2015 "Try to keep the jersey as long as possible and will not give it up without a fight." http://t.co/SG9wPPCT2W pic.twitter.com/BmC9ePn2qO

— Team Picnic PostNL (@picnicpostnl) August 26, 2015

He leads the general classification with a one-second advantage over Colombian Esteban Chaves, who came in eights seconds behind Wednesday’s stage winner.

The mass finish means that Roche and Martin remain where they are in the standings, with Tour de France winner Chris Froome moving up to 7th place.

Thursday’s sixth stage is a 200.3-kilometre ride from Cordoba to Sierra de Cazorla.