Arnaud Demare won stage five of the Giro d’Italia on a day when Mark Cavendish and Caleb Ewan were caught out on a climb and left unable to contest the sprint in Messina.
Groupama-FDJ won the battle for position going into the final corner and got their reward as their rider Demare held off Fernando Gaviria and Giacomo Nizzolo to take the win.
The sprint finish meant there were no major changes at the top of the general classification, with Juan Pedro Lopez retaining the leader’s pink jersey he gained on Mount Etna on Tuesday.
Britain’s Simon Yates remains fourth overall, one minute 42 seconds down and the best placed of the main favourites.
Victory was a repeat for Demare, who won a similar stage to this in the 2020 Giro. Just as happened then, the race split on the only categorised climb, the Portella Mandrazzi, midway through the 174km stage from Catania, with several sprinters put in trouble.
With the peloton around halfway up the 20km-long climb, Mathieu van der Poel’s Alpecin-Fenix squad moved to the front and upped the pace, successfully distancing Cavendish, Ewan and, briefly at least, Demare himself.
Cavendish crossed th …
- May 12, 2022
