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German Andre Greipel of Columbia HTC won the fifth stage of the Vuelta a Espana in Vinaros to take the overall lead.

Greipel, who won Tuesday's stage in Liege before the rest day, had too much speed for Tom Boonen, Daniele Bennati and Tyler Farrar in a bunch sprint at the end of the 174 kilometre stage from Tarragona.

With his second consecutive victory, Greipel takes the overall lead from Fabian Cancellara.

The 27-year-old from Rostock collected 20 bonus seconds for the stage win and is six seconds ahead of Boonen with Bennati third at 17 seconds and Farrar fourth at 21 seconds.

"It was one of the victories that I will never forget. The team did exceptional work even if one of them had a problem with a wheel," said Greipel, who turned professional in 2005.

Only the top 14 riders were awarded the same time as the winner with 88 riders, including Cancellara, coming in 18 seconds back. The Swiss drops to fifth on GC at 27 seconds.

After the first four stages in the Benelux countries, the race returned to its host nation with the riders met by sweltering conditions.

An escape group featuring Jose Antonio Lopez Gil (Andalucia Cajasur), Julien el Fares (Cofidis), Julian Sanchez Pimienta (Contentpolis-Ampo), Matheus Pronk (Vacansoleil), Serafin Martinez (Xacobeo Galicia) and Aitor Hernandez (Euskatel-Euskadi) formed early in the stage.

They built up a maximum lead of six minutes as they crossed the category two Coll de Fatxas, with Hernandez taking the red jersey in the mountains classification in the process, but the lead was whittled away as they headed into the province of Castellon.

Dutchman Pronk was the last of the escapees to be caught with just under 20km remaining but the Alto de la Ermita with 10km to go was a short, sharp climb which offered the perfect launch pad for a stage-winning attack.

Silence Lotto's Philippe Gilbert made a bid for glory and opened up a lead of over 20 seconds but was caught with 3km remaining by the Quick Step squad of Boonen.

However the Belgian champion had no answer to Greipel in the closing metres as the Columbia-HTC man collected his 17th victory of the year.

Greipel is the seventh German to lead the Vuelta and the first since Jan Ullrich in 1999.

Overall Standings (click on link under picture for top 30):

1. Andre Greipel (Germany / Columbia) 19 hrs 40 mins 23 secs

2. Tom Boonen (Belgium / Quick-Step) +6 secs

3. Daniele Bennati (Italy / Liquigas) +17"

4. Tyler Farrar (US / Garmin) +21"

5. Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland / Saxo Bank) +27"

Points Standings:

1. Andre Greipel (Germany / Columbia) 78 points

2. Tom Boonen (Belgium / Quick-Step) 58

3. Tyler Farrar (US / Garmin) 47

4. Jurgen Roelandts (Belgium / Silence - Lotto) 33

5. Borut Bozic (Slovenia / Vacansoleil) 33

6. Daniele Bennati (Italy / Liquigas) 31

7. Oscar Freire (Spain / Rabobank) 29

8. Wouter Weylandt (Belgium / Quick-Step) 28

9. Roger Hammond (Britain / Cervelo) 26

10. Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland / Saxo Bank) 25

Mountain Standings:

1. Aitor Hernandez (Spain / Euskaltel) 10 points

2. Lars Boom (Netherlands / Rabobank) 9

3. Serafin Martinez (Spain / Xacobeo) 7

4. Javier Ramirez (Spain / Andalucia) 5

5. Julian Sanchez (Spain / Contentpolis) 5

6. Julien El Fares (France / Cofidis) 3

7. Sergey Lagutin (Uzbekistan / Vacansoleil) 3

8. Jose Antonio Lopez Gil (Spain / Andalucia) 2

9. Dominik Roels (Germany / Milram) 1

10. Matthe Pronk (Netherlands / Vacansoleil) 1

Team Standings:

1. Liquigas 59 hrs 2 mins 27 secs

2. Saxo Bank +3 secs

3. Garmin +6"

4. Caisse d'Epargne +10"

5. Quick-Step +12"

6. Columbia +15"

7. Astana "

8. Silence - Lotto +19"

9. Milram +21"

10. Rabobank +23"

STAGE 6 LIVE at 4pm on Friday on British Eurosport (Sky 410 / Virgin Media 521); Also available on your PC via the Eurosport Player - click on the link under the picture to subscribe

Lee Walker / Eurosport