Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) used his brute strength and sprinting power to win stage 5 of the Giro d'Italia in Benevento, distancing his rivals on the rising finish in the city centre.
The German won by several bike lengths ahead of Arnaud Demare (FDJ) and Bob Jungels (Etixx-QuickStep), after coming from behind and avoiding a crash on a corner with 1.5km to go with Rein Taaramae (Katusha) loosing grip and sliding out. That disrupted several riders and their lead out train as riders took evasive action. Roberto Ferrari waited in vain for Lampre-Merida teammate Sacha Modolo and Sonny Colbrelli (Bardiani-CSF) hesitated while on the front but that played perfectly into Greipel’s hands. He surged away in the final three hundred metres, winning by several bike lengths.
It was Greipel’s fourth victory at the Giro d’Italia and confirmed his consistency in the Grand Tour sprints. Greipel has now won at least a stage on every Grand Tour he has ridden since 2008.
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Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) finished safely in the peloton and so kept the pink jersey. He now leads Jungels by 14 seconds, with stage four winner Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) third overall at 20 seconds. Surprisingly, Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep) did not fight for the victory in the sprint after being distanced by the peloton with six kilometres. He suffered during the rolling 233km stage and finished 3:56 after sitting up during the finishing circuit.
“Chapeau to my teammates today,” Greipel said immediately after his victory. “It was hard for them to chase down the break but they continued to work for me even if the other teams didn’t help us. We had to gamble a little bit and in the end we used two more riders with Lars Bak and Wellens to chase the breakaway down. The others then kept me up front and I tried to stay up there on the final lap and Jurgen Roelandts did an amazing job from 5km to the final kilometre to keep me up there. Everybody slowed with about 400 metres to go and I thought if I see a gap then I’ll go through it. I saw the gap and I went through it and I gave everything I had in my legs.”
Dumoulin was happy to avoid the late crash. He was more concerned about Thursday’s 157km sixth stage is from Ponte to Roccaraso, the first mountain finish of this years’ race. “It was a really hard day, it was all up and down and it was fast with four guys in the break. Then in the final the speed was crazy,” he said.
Giro d'Italia Stage 5 Video Highlights
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