Stage 5 of the Giro d’Italia goes to Enrico Battaglin, winning a bunch sprint in Santa Ninfa over compatriot Giovanni Visconti (Bahrain-Merida) and Portugal’s José Gonçalves (Katusha-Alpecin).
The stage began with an early escape consisting of two members of the Trek-Segafredo team, the Irish champion Ryan Mullen and the Luxembourger Laurent Didier. They are accompanied by the Italian Andrea Vendrame (Androni-Sidermec-Bottecchia) and Albanian Eugert Zhupa (Wilier Triestina). The escape could best be classified as leisurely, as the four never gained more than a 5 minute lead over a peloton that took time to enjoy some smoother, flatter roads before the narrow climbs later in the stage.
With 45km to go, the leaders saw their advantage decrease to 2’30” as Mullen continues to chase points. French teams Ag2R-La Mondiale and Groupama-FDJ were leading the bunch – maybe a little too aggresively, with 2 Ag2R riders going down in the exit of a hairpin turn at the 39km mark.
With 32km to go, Lotto-Soudal moved up in the peloton to up the pace. With leader Tim Wellens winning yesterday’s stage (and gaining a respectable jump in G.C. placing), they wanted to make sure he was protected and in a good position to go for a win today as well.
Lotto-Soudal continued their position at the front of the peloton, but one could hardly call the chase aggressive. With 25km to go, the 4 leaders still had a 2’19” gap.
At about the 21km mark, the leaders started to realize that the peloton may let them go all the way, resulting in a little bit of infighting. Didier attacked first, leaving teammate Mullen in the dust before they rejoined, then Vendrame went off the front.
The chase is on with 19km remaining. Mullen rejoins the peloton, leaving Didier, Vendrame and Zhupa with little over 30 seconds lead over a peloton pinpointed by Team Sky.
The narrow roads brought down a number of riders at 13km, most notably white jersey leader Maximilian Schachmann of the Quick-Step Floors team. It was not clear at this point if Chris Froome was affected.
Schachmann was up but was trailing the peloton as Vendrame’s lead shrunk to 21 seconds.
Vendrame’s escape ends at just under 3km remaining as Lotto Soudal pushes back to the front to position Wellen’s for another sprint.
With 1km to go, it’s Diego Ulissi that makes the first go, but he is quickly pulled back. Fabio Aru is the next to go, attacking with just 400m remaining, but at the end it’s Enrico Battaglin taking the win over compatriot Giovanni Visconti (Bahrain-Merida) and Portugal’s José Gonçalves (Katusha-Alpecin). Battaglin finished 3rd in yesterday’s stage, so he’s clearly hungry for stage wins.
Speaking seconds after the stage finish, the stage winner Enrico Battaglin said: “Today’s finish was different from yesterday’s. It was a very powerful one yesterday. I was more at ease here. The Giro is very important for me every year. I’m extremely happy to be a stage winner again. I want to continue the race this way.”
The race leader Rohan Dennis said: “It was a nice day on the bike, on quite a slow pace because of the head wind. I felt a bit of stress every now and then but I am glad to be in the Maglia Rosa. We’re only on day five, that means sixteen days to go. Tomorrow will be another story with the Etna. I’m looking forward to see how I’ll go up there.”
Stage 5 Brief Results:
- Enrico Battaglin (Team Lotto NL – Jumbo) – 4h06’33”
- Giovanni Visconti (Bahrain – Merida) s.t.
- José Gonçalves (Team Katusha Alpecin) s.t.
General Classification After Stage 5:
- Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing Team)
- Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) at 1″
- Simon Yates (Mitchelton – Scott) at 17″
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