Giro 2024: Sprinters are surprised in Lucca, escapee Benjamin Thomas wins after blood-curdling final

Benjamin Thomas surprisingly won the fifth stage of the 2024 Giro d’Italia in Lucca. The Frenchman from Cofidis was the best escapee of a leading group that nicely surprised the sprinters after almost 180 kilometers of race. Thomas defeated Michael Valgren, Andrea Pietrobon and Enzo Paleni. The peloton arrived too late: Jonathan Milan won the sprint for fifth place eleven seconds later.

After the sprint victories of Tim Merlier and Jonathan Milan, a sprinter’s opportunity was again on the menu on the fifth day of the Giro d’Italia. The ride from Genoa to Lucca was largely along the Tyrrhenian coast. After 60 kilometers there was still the Passo del Bracco (15.2 km at 3.9%) and 20 kilometers before the finish the Montemagno (3 km at 4.3%) was climbed. Other than that the ride was almost flat.

Mattia Bais (Polti-Kometa) and Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ) were the first attackers of the day. They initially had Ewen Costiou (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) with them, but the Frenchman was forced back to the peloton. His place at the front was taken by Simon Geschke (Cofidis) and Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè), giving us four front runners in this sprint stage.

Fabio Jakobsen releases again early as the Groves team accelerates
In the peloton, Lidl-Trek, Soudal Quick-Step and Alpecin-Deceuninck immediately took control. For a while the gap was two minutes, but the sprinter teams did not want to give the leaders too much of a lead and reduced the difference to one minute. On the long Passo del Bracco, Alpecin-Deceuncinck took the lead with Kaden Groves. The first victim among the sprinters was (again) Fabio Jakobsen, who is clearly the least climbing sprinter uphill.

In the last five kilometers of the Bracco, Caleb Ewan and Tim Merlier also encountered some problems, but they limited the damage and were able to quickly return to the peloton. Simon Geschke took the most points at the top, but the peloton was hot on the heels of the escapees and caught them back on the descent. The early flight came to an end more than 100 kilometers before the finish.

Jakobsen closes the gap of no less than four minutes
After the descent of the Passo del Bracco, Alpecin-Deceuninck stopped gaining pace, causing the peloton to stagnate somewhat. This gave Jakobsen, Julius van den Berg and Gijs Leemreize the opportunity to make up time. That was necessary, because at one point the Dutch trio was four (!) minutes behind. At 90 kilometers from the finish he was able to return to the suit.

Jakobsen did not participate in the subsequent intermediate sprint. Kaden Groves did and he managed to beat Olav Kooij and Jonathan Milan. However, a hard crash by Christophe Laporte, who drove through a hole, was more noticeable. The Frenchman was able to continue well and after a long chase he joined the peloton. Shortly after the intermediate sprint, four new riders escaped: Michael Valgren (EF Education-EasyPost), Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis), Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ) and Andrea Pietrobon (Polti Kometa).

Peloton has to make every effort, but arrives too late
Those four never took more than a two-minute lead and eventually started the Montemagno with just under a minute’s lead (3 km at 4.3%). Lidl-Trek did everything they could to close the gap on that climb, but it didn’t work. After the descent, there was no support for the Milan team, which caused them to ask for help themselves. Soudal Quick-Step, Jayco AlUla, Visma | Lease a Bike and Intermarché-Wanty saw the danger, because 10 kilometers before the finish the difference with the four ‘fresh’ leaders was still 45 seconds.

The lead did not decrease very quickly, because Valgren, Thomas, Paleni and Pietrobon were running well. At 5 kilometers from the finish the gap was still 40 seconds. The peloton had the utmost difficulty to catch the leaders and under the rag it was clear that the attackers were going to win. Pietrobon, who had not made a head turn in the last kilometers, tried to pull away in that final kilometer. The Italian opened a big gap and seemed to win, but Paleni closed the gap and destroyed himself.

It eventually turned into a sprint-à-deux between Valgren and Thomas. The experienced Dane was the first, but was outclassed by the French track cyclist, who with his victory ensured Cofidis’ first victory of the season. The oncoming peloton only crossed the finish line eleven seconds later, with purple jersey Milan in the lead. Tim Merlier and Olav Kooij only finished eighth and ninth.

photo: Cor Vos