Giro peloton completely misses the leading group: Benjamin Thomas is the lucky winner

Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis) managed to win the fifth stage of the Giro d’Italia. In Lucca, after a very exciting final, he turned out to be the best of a late breakaway of four, which the peloton miscalculated.

For the third day in a row, the peloton stepped up for an apparent opportunity for the fast men present, which immediately indicates why they en masse had traveled to the Grande Partenza in Turin. While it was still a matter of watching a small hill in the final with a slanted eye the past two days, now it was the altitude meters from the departure that inspired fear.

We started in Genoa, from where the hills are never far away. The platoon continued to follow the coast south and had to go up immediately, but the beginning caused a mouse. Ewen Costiou (Arkéa – B&B Hotels), Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ) and Matttia Bais (Polti-Kometa) attacked from the start, but once again it turned out to be a good time.

Jakobsen got into trouble early

Simon Geschke (Cofidis) and Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group-Bardiani) managed to connect, but in the meantime doubts were already creeping into the team leader’s car of Arkéa-B&B Hotels. Costiou, their man for the tougher stages, was urged to drop back into the peloton. There, the sprint teams Soudal Quick-Step (Merlier) and Lidl-Trek (Milan) took the lead, allowing TV viewers to marvel at the beautiful Ligurian coast for a while.

Central to this ride was the Passo del Bracco, a climb of 15.9 kilometers at 3.8 percent. Towards this obstacle, the men of Alpecin-Deceuninck nestled at the front of the peloton, knowing that their fast man Kaden Groves will go up very well. Jimmy Janssens provided the pace on behalf of the formation and that very quickly led to difficulties for Fabio Jakobsen, who, just like on Tuesday, had Gijs Leemreize and Julius van den Berg with him as watchdogs.

Read more below the video.

=https://twitter.com/Eurosport_NL/status/1788184460086620255″ data-service=”twitter”>

This made it once again an ordeal for the wiry Jakobsen, but he was not the only sprinter who had a hard time. Towards the top, Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step), Caleb Ewan (Jayco AlUla), Fernando Gaviria (Movistar) and Giovanni Lonardi (Polti-Kometa) also had to leave the group, although the verdict for them at the top was not too bad. Merlier’s men in particular acted adequately, allowing the sprinter to return in the descent.

Stage marred by crashes

After the climb, Alpecin-Deceuninck took a breather, allowing the peloton to continue at walking pace for some time. This even caused Jakobsen to make up for his lost minutes no time could make up for it, leaving the peloton and groupe could continue on the road to Lucca. An intermediate sprint was a welcome snack, but they were suddenly startled by a hard fall by Christophe Laporte.

The Visma driver | Lease a Bike wanted to say something to a competitor from Alpecin-Deceuninck while returning, but overlooked a pothole and hit the asphalt hard. The Frenchman lagged behind for a moment tarmac and looked shocked at his sore ankle and some abrasions, but a little later he got back on his two-wheeler to return to the peloton.

Read more below the video.

=https://twitter.com/Eurosport_NL/status/1788204226016878776″ data-service=”twitter”>

While Laporte stayed behind, four other men took advantage of the desperation after the intermediate sprint to drive in front. With Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis), Michael Valgren (EF Education-EasyPost), Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ) and Andrea Pietrobon (Polti-Kometa), there were quite a few PKs present during that attempt, which made the sprint teams decide to send their men to mobilize again immediately: Alpecin-Deceuninck, Soudal Quick-Step and Lidl-Trek joined forces to prevent the lead from becoming too large.

A little later there was another crash 33 kilometers from the finish, with Alan Riou (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Davide Piganzoli, Giovanni Lonardi (Polti-Kometa) and Riley Pickrell (Israel-Premier Tech) among the injured. The latter in particular had to stand still for a while, as he had suffered a head injury in his collision with some street furniture. Daniel Felipe Martínez was also there at number three in the rankings, but the Colombian from BORA-hansgrohe was able to continue his journey with only some damage to his hand.

‘No chance’ leading group makes the peloton quite difficult

A few kilometers later it happened again, with Tobias Foss (INEOS Grenadiers), Michael Woods, Nadav Raisberg (Israel-Premier Tech), Lorenzo Milesi (Movistar), Henok Mulubhran (Astana) and Attila Valter (Visma | Lease a Bike) among others. ) as victims. Nervousness increased noticeably, possibly because the sprint teams had a lot of difficulty in catching the leaders.

The pace was high, but fifteen kilometers from the finish there was still a one-minute lead. Thus, new forces were called in to help, with Jayco AlUla, Visma | Lease a Bike and Intermarché-Wanty. However, towards the technical final phase, the lead continued to fluctuate around 45 seconds, which was quite a lot with still seven kilometers to go.

Thomas was the man who was the driving force at the front, while behind him men were eaten one by one. Fast riders like Josef Cerny and Edoardo Affini are sorry, they were not able to close it immediately. With three kilometers to go, there was still a thirty-second lead, which clearly gave the advantage to the men at the front. And then it fell silent again…

Pietrobon pretended all the time that he couldn’t join the ride, but attacked anyway under the rag. Like a thief he drove away from a fellow escapee, but the others did not let that happen. Thomas was ultimately the better of Valgren and won the stage. https://twitter.com/Eurosport_NL/status/1788226077883588955 by Milan.

=https://twitter.com/Eurosport_NL/status/1788226077883588955″ data-service=”twitter”>