Kaden Groves sprinted to a second stage win in as many days as he held off a powerful Filippo Ganna surge in stage five of the Vuelta a Espana.
Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel retained the overall leader’s red jersey.
He finished in the pack having earlier picked up six seconds in a bonus sprint late on the 186.5km stage to Burriana.
It means Evenepoel stretched his general classification lead to 11 seconds over second-placed Enric Mas.
Lenny Martinez is 17 seconds behind in third, while Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard is now 37 seconds off the lead in fourth.
Victory for Groves strengthens his grip on the green jersey.
“It’s a fantastic feeling, the second win of this Vuelta, and two in a row, it’s a great feeling especially doing it with the green jersey,” Groves said.
“At the end, it was a pretty hectic final today, similar to yesterday but without climbing. The wind and roundabouts made it quite nervous but my team was fantastic again.”
The race returns to higher altitude on Thursday with the 183km stage six from La Vall d’Uixo to Observatorio Astrofisico de Javalambre.
Stage five results
1. Kaden Groves (Aus/Alpecin-Deceuninck) 4hrs 23mins 43secs
2. Filippo Ganna (Ita/Ineos Grenadiers) Same time
3. Dries van Gestel (Bel/Totalenergies)
4. Alberto Dainese (Ita/Team DSM-Firmenich)
5. Lewis Askey (GB/Groupama-FDJ)
6. Edward Theuns (Bel/Lidl-Trek)
7. David Gonzalez (Spa/Caja Rural-Segurosrga)
8. Geoffrey Soupe (Fra/TotalEnergies)
9. Jesus Ezquerra (Spa/Burgos-BH)
10. Jarrad Drizners (Aus/Lotto Dstny)
General classification after stage five
1. Remco Evenepoel (Bel/SoudalQuickStep) 17hrs 12mins 29secs
2. Enric Mas (Spa/Movistar Team) +11secs
3. Lenny Martinez (Fra/Groupama – FDJ) +17secs
4. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Jumbo-Visma) +37secs
5. Alexsandr Vlasov (Rus/Bora – Hansgrohe) +39secs
6. Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bel/Bora – Hansgrohe) Same time
7. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Jumbo-Visma) +43secs
8. Juan Ayuso (Spa/UAE Team Emirates) +44secs
9. Marc Soler (Spa/UAE Team Emirates) +48secs
10. Joao Almeida (Por/UAE Team Emirates) Same time
