Wout Poels seals overall victory at Ruta del Sol

Wout Poels sealed the overall victory at the 2022 Ruta del Sol while Bora-Hansgrohe's Lennard Kämna won the final stage five.

The stage was contested by the breakaway, Kämna eventually outlasting his rivals, EOLO-Kometa's Lorenzo Fortunato crossing the line four seconds later to finish second with former race leader Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates) third.

Behind, Bahrain-Victorious controlled the peloton to deliver Wout Poels victory, TotalEnergies Cristián Rodriguez second, 14 seconds in arrears, just ahead of Astana's Miguel Ángel López who claimed the third spot on the final podium.

How it happened

Lennard Kämna was showing his intent soon after the flag drop, attacking from the peloton and taking others with him, until eventually a large group of nearly 20 formed ahead of the peloton.

Simon Clarke and Benoît Cosnefroy were amongst those involved, while behind the bunch started to fracture too, race leader Wout Poels finding himself in the front.

Soon the peloton recoupled, however, and the break were only a minute ahead as it ticked under 100km to go.

Quick-Step then took charge on the front,  bringing the break closer, which was losing members already and soon only four remained out front: Clarke, Kämna, Oldani and Leysen.

With 62km to go that quartet was caught too, until another move went, again including Kämna, Clarke and Oldani, while the dozen or so others including Ineos' Magnus Sheffield, Emanuel Buchmann and Matteo Trentin, who soon had two and a half minute's advantage.

Buchmann, Janssens and Fortunato then attacked the front group with 35km remaining, soon reeled in, but pushing the gap up towards the three-minute mark.

The gap endured up to the base of the final summit finish with 10km to go, Clarke and Stan Dewulf dropped with 5km left, before Nelson Oliveira launched a move that was brought back by Alessandro Covi.

Lennard Kämna had been signalling all day that he had the legs, and with less than 2km left he was the only left out front, Covi and Fortunato chasing but to no avail as the German sealed the stage win.

Behind, Poels finished strongly to seal the overall win for Bahrain-Victorious.

Results

Ruta del Sol 2022, stage five: Huesa to Chiclana de Segura (146.4km)

1. Lennard Kämna (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe, in 3-43-05
2. Lorenzo Fortunato (Ita) EOLO-Kometa, at four seconds
3. Alessandro Covi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates, at 10s
4. Magnus Sheffield (USA) Ineos Grenadiers, at 12s
5. Gonzalo Serrano (Esp) Movistar, at 25s
6. Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe, at 26s
7. Stefano Oldani (Ita) Alpecin-Fenix, at 27s
8. Simone Velasco (Ita) Astana Qazaqstan, at 29s
9. Floris De Tier (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix, at 39s
10. Nelson Oliveira (Por) Movistar, at 49s

Final general classification

1. Wout Poels (Ned) Bahrain-Victorious, in 17-06-49
2. Cristián Rodríguez (Esp) TotalEnergies, at 14 seconds
3. Miguel Ángel López (Col) Astana Qazaqstan, at 15s
4. Carlos Rodriguez (Esp) Ineos Grenadiers, at 19s
5. Simon Yates (GBr) BikeExchange - Jayco, at 20s
6. Jack Haig (Aus) Bahrain-Victorious, at 22s
7. Ben O'Connor (Aus) Ag2r Citroën, at 26s
8. Mauri Vansevenant (Bel) Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl, at 32s
9. Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana Qazaqstan, at 34s
10. Iván Sosa (Col) Movistar, at 39s