Soler Basque-ing in the Sun

Roglic made a strong point yesterday on Stage 4, but those cheeky Jumbo Boys opted for a day or two off, so let the breakaway go up the road, along with the red jersey. Stage winner Marc Soler brilliantly attacked on the last climb and held off the chaotic chasing group with little time to enjoy the panorama from the hills above Bilbao His lead was as little as six seconds for a while the chasers argued amongst themselves. It was a first Spanish stage win this year, while Frenchman Rudy Mollard of Groupama-FDJ is keeping the GC leaders jumper warm for Primoz.

Team of the Day

The only riders in the top ten to feature in our fantasy teams were Fred Wright (3rd) for Engranajes para los miedos and The Pain in Spain and Nikias Arndt (6th) for Cuchara de Madera aqui who stay atop the league. But it’s Martin’s squad who did best on a low-scoring day:

How is your team doing so far?

In the league it’s Linda, David and Paul 1st, 2nd and 3rd after Stage 5.

Linda also has the best tally of top ten stage finishers to date, followed by David and three others tied for 3rd.

The ranking chart for the team time competition (combined GC times of the leading three riders in each team) is a bit of a Work in Progress, I’m afraid. This is always the trickiest bit to work out and to display. But so far it’s the Edge household who are contesting the top of this category, but there was a lot of movement in this one on Stage 5 with the breakaway win shuffling the GC times:

Finally, the trophy cabinet is close fought, with 4 teams tied on 11. Notice that the white jersey passed from one British rider to another today (from Ethan Hayter to Fred Wright). Hoorah! And Sam the Irishman stays in Green, appropriately.