Dan Martin shot into the top 10 at the Tour of Catalonia with a sixth-placed finish in the 182km mountain stage from Valls to Lo Port.
The 30-year-old lost more time than anticipated in the team time trial on stage 2 but finished second on the stage 3 climb of La Molina.
Another good showing on Friday lifted him to ninth, with Alejandro Valverde leading the way.
Valverde fended off Chris Froome and Alberto Contador with a late attack to clinch the stage five and take the overall leader's jersey.
The Spaniard moved 21 seconds clear of Froome in the general classification in the week-long race after leading the way in the 182km mountain stage from Valls to Lo Port along with Froome and compatriots Contador and Marc Soler.
He broke clear in the final 2km to finish 13 seconds ahead of Froome and Contador.
Valverde also won stage three at the top of La Molina on Wednesday, a day after he and his Movistar team mates were handed a one-minute penalty for illegal pushing during Tuesday's team time trial.
Valverde, who won the Tour of Catalonia and Tour of Spain in 2009, takes the leader's jersey from American Tejay van Garderen.
Volta a Catalunya (Valls-Tortosa, 182 km) stage 5 results - 1 Alejandro Valverde (Spain / Movistar) 4:14:52" 2 Chris Froome (Britain / Team Sky) +13" 3 Alberto Contador (Spain / Trek) 4 Marc Soler (Spain / Movistar) +25" 5 Adam Yates (Britain / Orica) +32" 6 Daniel Martin (Ireland / Quick-Step) +46" 7 David Gaudu (France / FDJ) +58" 8 Hugh Carthy (Britain / Cannondale) +1:04" 9 Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark / Astana) +1:11" 10 Steven Kruijswijk (Netherlands / LottoNL)
Volta a Catalunya classification after Stage 5 - 1 Alejandro Valverde (Spain / Movistar) 17:44:27" 2 Chris Froome (Britain / Team Sky) +21" 3 Alberto Contador (Spain / Trek) +47" 4 Marc Soler (Spain / Movistar) +1:00" 5 Adam Yates (Britain / Orica) +1:15" 6 Tejay van Garderen (U.S. / BMC Racing) +1:18" 7 Geraint Thomas (Britain / Team Sky) +1:34" 8 Samuel Sanchez (Spain / BMC Racing) +1:59" 9 Daniel Martin (Ireland / Quick-Step) +2:13" 10 Steven Kruijswijk (Netherlands / LottoNL) +2:40"
