Koldo close second in Lorca

Koldo Fernández pulled off a blistering sprint to finish second to Tyler Farrar in today's fifth Vuelta stage from Guadix to Lorca. Koldo couldn't quit get up to speed in time to catch the flying American, but still out-kicked Cavendish, who claimed third, along with Petacchi, Bos, Freire and Bennati to name a few. Impressive stuff, especially when taking in to account his compulsory bad position going into the final few clicks. For a long while he looked to be too far back to fight for the win, but with 400 metres he suddenly found himself on Cav's wheel and used him as a lead-out man. Not a bad choice! In the end it was a close to perfectly executed sprint from Koldo, but he just missed out by that agonizing wheel length. The other guys enjoyed a pretty chilled out day in the saddle, especially Amets Txurruka and Beñat Intxausti who looked like they just sat up with something like five or six kilometres to go. Maybe they did so as to not waste any unnecessary energy. The duo rolled in with the very last group 4:28 in arrears, whilst their team-mates all crossed the line inside the peloton, safe and sound. For the record, Igor Antón looked alert all day and stayed near the front, looking good.