The fifth stage of the 107th Giro d'Italia was on paper a stage for the sprinters in this race. However, things turned out to be a little bit different this time, as the riders rode from Genova to the streets of Lucca. In this blog post, I will give you my takeaways of this stage together with a little explanation.
1. The riders in the breakaway managed to keep off the sprinters in the peloton
In the current world of the professional cycling, the riders, who form the breakaway of the day in a flat stage, don't get a big advantage and are usually caught well ahead of the finish. However, things were a little bit different this time. Four riders rode away about halfway through the stage and only got a maximum advantage of more than a minute. Despite this small advantage, they managed to fight for the stage win by adjusting their pace to that of the peloton and by not looking at each other in the final kilometers of the stage.
2. Andrea Pietrobon (Team Polti Kometa) almost won the stage
However, Andrea Pietrobon of Team Polti Kometa skipped his turns at the front of the group in the final four to three kilometers of the stage, while the other three riders in the breakaway were giving everything they had. With about one kilometer remaining, the Italian attacked from behind and looked to take the stage win at some point, though he was reeled in with about two hundred meters to go by Benjamin Thomas (Team Cofidis) and Michael Valgren Andersen (Team EF Education Easypost). In the end, Thomas won before Valgren Andersen, while Pietrobon was third. Enzo Paleni (Groupama - FDJ), the other member of the breakaway, was fourth.
3. All help came a bit too late
In the peloton, the riders of Team Lidl Trek did majority of the work throughout the stage. At some point in the final twenty kilometers of the stage, the frustration of some riders of this team was visible and riders of several other teams started to help to chase the breakaway. However, this help came a little bit too late and the riders in the peloton didn't compete for the win this time, but for the fifth place.
4. After three stages for the sprinters, it's now time for the riders, who target the general classification to step up
After three stages for the sprinters, the riders will enter much tougher terrain in the upcoming stages. In stage six, they will get a hilly stage over gravel roads. Afterwards, they will get a flat individual time trial with a tough climb at the end before they will head to mountains with the finish at the top of Prato di Tivo in stage eight. As a result, we will see some battles between the riders, who target the general classification of this stage and there will be a lot of changes.