Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) climbed into a familiar position in the general classification at the Vuelta a Espana Wednesday, finishing in a select GC group that also included race leader Chris Froome (team Sky), Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) and Michael Woods (Cannondale-Drapac).
Chaves, who finished third overall last year in Madrid, moved from sixth to third in this year's race during the stage 5 climb to Ermita Santa Lucía in Alcossebre, where he finished 16th, 4:31 down on stage winner Alexey Lutsenko.
"Today is a really really hard stage, but we are really happy," the Orica-Scott rider said. "We arrived in the top four for the GC guys on the first hard climb, and this is a good signal for the future."
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Chaves now has plenty of friendly company in the top 10, with teammates Adam Yates sitting eighth at 50 seconds and Simon Yates in ninth at 1:09.
The 175.7km stage from Benicassim to Ermita Santa Lucía included four categorised climbs before the punchy uphill finish in Alcossebre, but the day's profile didn't deter the opportunists.
A group of 17 riders slipped away form the bunch in the early going, and Team Sky dutifully picked up the chase. Lutsenko and Marco Haller (Katusha-Alpecin) dropped their breakaway companions on the penultimate climb and approached the finale together, but Lutsenko had the better legs and dropped Haller on the ascent.
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