Miguel Angel Lopez swept to victory on the fifth stage of the Tour of San Juan on Friday, dominating an exhausting run up the 2,623-metre Alto Colorado to seize the overall lead. The 28-year-old Colombian, now riding for Medellin-EPM after being sacked by the Kazakh Astana team last month, finished 30 seconds ahead of Italy’s Filippo Ganna. He was also 38 and 40 seconds respectively in front of compatriots Sergio Higuita and former Tour de France winner Egan Bernal. World champion Remco Evenepoel led an escape 10km from home but was reeled in by the peloton and eventually ended down in seventh place, 1:09 off the pace.

Lopez, the 2016 Tour of Switzerland champion and third at the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta in 2018, has an overall lead of 30 seconds on Gana. He is also 44 seconds in front of Higuita and 50 seconds in front of Bernal with two stages left. The Colombian was axed by Astana due to alleged connections to a doctor being investigated in Spain over a doping network. He was briefly detained by Spanish police last year but they subsequently denied he was being investigated.

VUELTA A SAN JUAN STAGE 5 RESULTS

1	LÓPEZ Miguel Ángel	Team Medellin – EPM	4:07:10
2	GANNA Filippo	INEOS Grenadiers	0:30
3	HIGUITA Sergio	BORA – hansgrohe	0:38
4	BERNAL Egan	INEOS Grenadiers	0:40
5	RUBIO Einer Augusto	Movistar Team	0:40
6	RIVERA Brandon Smith	INEOS Grenadiers	0:51
7	EVENEPOEL Remco	Soudal – Quick Step	1:09
8	PAREDES César Nicolás	Sindicato de Empleados Públicos of San Juan	1:09
9	VERMAERKE Kevin	Team DSM	1:11
10	SIMMONS Quinn	Trek – Segafredo	1:31

 

OVERALL STANDINGS

1	LÓPEZ Miguel Ángel	Team Medellin – EPM	20:13:37
2	GANNA Filippo	INEOS Grenadiers	0:30
3	HIGUITA Sergio	BORA – hansgrohe	0:44
4	BERNAL Egan	INEOS Grenadiers	0:50
5	RUBIO Einer Augusto	Movistar Team	0:50
6	RIVERA Brandon Smith	INEOS Grenadiers	1:01
7	PAREDES César Nicolás	Sindicato de Empleados Públicos of San Juan	1:19
8	EVENEPOEL Remco	Soudal – Quick Step	1:19
9	VERMAERKE Kevin	Team DSM	1:30
10	RICCITELLO Matthew	Israel – Premier Tech	1:41

 

RBA/AFP Photo: Sprint Cycling