The final trail-heavy stage with start and finish in Córdoba ends with another victory for Pedro Romero (ESP) and Luis Leao Pinto (POR). However, the air is getting thinner and thinner for the Iberian pairing, as they only just managed to take victory in a sprint against Alban Lakata (AUT) and Kristian Hynek from Topeak-Ergon-Racing-Team. The duo Flückiger/Rohrbach followed with a gap of just under two minutes, clearly keeping the Spanish "oldies" Juan Pedro Trujillo and Ismael Ventura at bay. "The standard is still very high. We were able to use our skills as complete bikers very well in the technical sections. Now we're doing everything we can to achieve a podium finish in the overall standings with a top performance on the last stage," says Nicola Rohrbach.

In the overall classification, the two Swiss riders are in fourth place - one minute behind third place. However, this is occupied by the Spanish-Portuguese winning team. Two minutes ahead of the Swiss are the all-Spanish duo Tiago Oliveira and David Serralhiero, who lost almost seven minutes to Flückiger and Rohrbach in stage five. This means that the two still have a real chance of third place overall. The sixth and final stage is therefore likely to be a real thriller. The new leaders are now Alban Lakata and Kristian Hynek.
There should be no changes in the rankings for fifth and sixth place. These are occupied by Matthias Stirnemann and Marc Stutzmann, and Urs Huber and Karl Platt. Both teams have a gap of around ten minutes to the front, between each other and to the rear.Thriller in the women's race too
As on the previous day, victory on the fifth stage went to the Slovenian-Spanish duo of Tanja Zakelj and Claudia Galicia. The Swiss riders, Milena Landtwing and Esther Süss, are doing well, at times ahead of Zakelj and Galicia, but then lose a little in the second half. The gap to the leaders remains moderate until the Landtwing/Süss duo is slowed down by a defect. The pair were able to cross the finish line in second place, but their lead in the overall standings was badly damaged. "Tomorrow, the last stage will be extremely exciting. Esther and I still have a lead of just under five minutes, but we can't allow ourselves another defect," explains Landtwing.The sixth and final stage, with only 1,100 meters of climbing over 55 kilometers, should suit the leading Swiss riders. It will be more difficult for Mathias Flückiger and Nicola Rohrbach to close the gap to the podium. However, nothing is impossible, as has already been proven more than enough.

www.andaluciabikerace.com