Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) won stage 5 of the 2011 Vuelta a Espana in a brilliant way. He got his Katusha team to catch all the breakaways of the day and he dropped everyone off in the steep final ascent at Valdepeñas de Jaén that included a section of 23%.

Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) stayed in the lead with an advantage of nine seconds over Daniel Moreno (Katusha) who finished third the day after winning at the Sierra Nevada.

Due to a crash, Chente Garcia (Movistar) was the third rider to pull out of the Vuelta after HTC-Highroad's sprinters Matt Goss and Mark Cavendish.

Michael Albasini (HTC-Highroad), Miguel Madrazo (Movistar), Johannes Fröhlinger (Skil-Shimano), Rein Taarämae (Cofidis), Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale), Tom Slagter (Rabobank), Davide Malacarne (Quick Step) and Adrian Palomares (Andalucia-Granada) created a breakaway before the first passage at Valdepeñas de Jaén at km 67. Albasini insisted by himself. Madrazo and Fröhlinger came across. Madrazo was the last man of the breakaway caught at km 23.

David Moncoutie attacked in the climb of Alto de Valdepeñas 12km away from the finish. He got caught with 500 metres to go in the uphill finale, just prior to Rodriguez's terrific acceleration. Nobody was able to follow Rodriguez.

The average speed of the stage was 39.661km/h, which is very high considering the undulated terrain and the heat.

Sylvain Chavanel kept the overall lead in the Vuelta after today's stage.

Watch video highlights from today's Vuelta stage in our video section.

You'll find complete results and more photos from today's stage here.