La Vuelta Femenina stage 5 LIVE: After a frantic start a five rider breakaway is finally established

Coutinho takes maximum points, Martín second, Eraaso third and Van Alphen fourth.
That means it’s very highly likely the mountains classification will stay in the Mayenne-Monbana My Pie team.

Martín and Coutinho have forged on ahead as the top of the climb approaches, they’re probably fighting for the mountains points. They lead the other three escapees by 20 seconds at the top.

Kopecky’s SD Worx-Protime team are doing the work on the front of the peloton, not only are they defending the red jersey but they’ll probably want another sprint when they reach Astorga.

Alice Coutinho is the best placed rider in today’s breakaway though she’s unlikely to manage to take the virtual – or real – over all lead as she began the day 8.24 behind Lotte Kopecky.

Marina Garau is not stranger to the breakaway, she was up the road on stage 3, part of a three woman group chasing a leading duo. They never quite got there, so she has bettered that ride today.

With their deficit to the breakaway now out to 2.45, the peloton begin the day’s first classified climb.

We’re approaching the start of the day’s first classified climb, Collada de Olleros de Alba. It climbs 236m over 6.6km, and, at an average gradient of 3.6%, it’s not too tough.

Now the gap goes out again. Maybe the peloton is happy after all.

The gap is coming down now, it’s just 35 seconds, someone in the peloton is not happy with those up the road.

In the breakaway, Coutinho is Allione’s team mate and the French rider is another strong climber, maybe she can defend the jersey, or even take it herself.
They’ll have to stay away from the bunch yet, they’re still chasing.

Martín, Eraso and Garau are being chased by Aniek van Alphen (Fenix-Premier Tech) and Alice Coutinho (Mayenne-Monbana My Pie) who are 10 seconds behind the leaders, while the bunch are almost a minute down now.

Martín has been joined by Idoia Eraso (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) and Marina Garau (Vini Fantini-Bepink), the three of them have a 20 second lead.

Martín was being chased by two riders but they’re caught and the Movistar rider’s lead is out to about 15 seconds. We’re flying at the moment, the average speed is 45km/h, and yes, we are going slightly uphill.

The attacks keep coming, but nothing is sticking just yet.

Each of the classified climbs have 6, 4, 2 and 1 points, so if Allione were to win just won of them she’d be safe in the jersey.

Today might have been described as the easiest of the entire week, but there are two third category climbs through the day, as well as another late intermediate sprint, with 6, 4 and 2 bonus seconds available.

Allione will be hoping to harvest a few more mountains points to consolidate the jersey, but she tried too soon, the pair are caught.

Marine Allione (Mayenne-Monbana My Pie) is wearing the polka-dot jersey of the mountains classification leader, and she’s trying to get away.
With her is her team mate Justine Gegu.

118 riders took the start and some of them are attacking from the get go.

No rain in the forecast today, sunshine and highs of about 17º for the stage. The wind is blowing from the south, but for now it’s only around 11km/h, so it shouldn’t affect the race, though the final 60km will be mostly headwind, making it hard for a breakaway.