Swift takes Basque fifth, Contador stays in front

Britain`s Ben Swift claimed victory on the fifth stage of the Tour of the Basque Country on Friday as Alberto Contador maintained his overall lead.

Swift, riding for Team Sky, timed his sprint to the line perfectly to take the 160.21km stage from Eibar to Markina-Xemein ahead of Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Michal Kwiatowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) in a time of 3hr 56min 56sec. Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) finished ninth, but didn`t lose any time on the leaders to ensure he retains his 12-second lead over Valverde in the general classification with Italy`s Damiano Cunego (Lampre), Australian Cadel Evans (BMC) and Frenchman Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r) a further 24 seconds back. The race will be decided in Saturday`s final stage, a 25.9 km individual time trial around Markina-Xemein.