Caleb Ewan has celebrated the biggest win of his career, the 21-year-old Australian winning the fifth stage of Spain's Vuelta with Dutch rider Tom Dumoulin the new overall leader.

Orica GreenEDGE's Ewan, tackling his debut Vuelta, prevailed in a dash for the line after a 167.5-kilometre ride from Rota to Alcala de Guadaira.

His team-mate, Johan Esteban Chaves, started the day in possession of the leader's red jersey but by the end of the stage he had been relegated to second in the general classification, albeit by only one second to Team Giant-Alpecin's Dumoulin.

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Dumoulin came in 15th with Chaves in 20th in the stage.

In third, 16 seconds back, was Team Sky's Irish rider, Nicolas Roche.

Ewan's win was made all the sweeter as he crossed the line with specialist sprinters John Degenkolb of Germany, whose big race wins include the Milan-SanRemo and Paris-Roubaix, and Slovakia's Peter Sagan, a four-time winner of the Tour de France points classification, in his wake.

Ewan was set up for his breakthrough success in perfect style by other members of his team in the final 50 metres.

"This is by far the best day of my career," he said.

"To beat some of the top sprinters in the world, especially riders like Degenkolb or Sagan, on a climbing finish like that, that means a lot to me."

"It's an honour to compete against riders like that," Ewan, for whom this is a first shot at one of the Grand Tours, added.

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Sagan was well placed in second but he was put in his place by the promising Australian, who came around the German to take the honours.

Dumoulin conceded taking the overall lead had not been on his mind at the beginning of the stage.

"It didn't figure in my plans for today (Wednesday) but it is an agreeable surprise," Dumoulin said.

"Now that I have got the jersey I am going to fight to retain it, and I hope to keep it for as long as possible.

"However, there are several difficult stages coming up," added the 24-year-old, who is competing in his first Vuelta.

Thursday's sixth stage is a 200.3-kilometre ride from Cordoba and Sierra de Cazorla with a finish on a third category summit.

AFP