2013 Giro d'Italia Stage 5 Results & Recap
Stage 5 of the 2013 Giro d'Italia is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Crash disrupts peloton in final kilometre
John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) won a crash-affected fifth stage at the Giro d'Italia from Cosenza to Matera with Angel Vicioso (Katusha) finishing in second and Paul Martens (Team Blanco) in third. Luca Paolini (Katusha) avoided going down in the pile-up and retained his overall lead in the race for another day.
Degenkolb had started the day as a pre-race favourite, his punchy sprint and climbing ability enough to pinpoint him as the man to beat should the race be decided by a sprint. When the sprinters with weaker climbing legs were distanced on the penultimate climb of Montescaglioso, Degenkolb marshalled his lead-out train to the front. Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) had long since been dropped but Elia Viviani (Cannondale), Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) and a number of other gallopers remained and were targeting victory.
However on the late corner disaster struck as one of Degenkolb's lead-out train, Luka Mezgec, lost his front wheel on the wet road and skidded into the barriers. The screech of brakes and locked wheels immediately followed as the a dozen or so other riders crashed and the majority of the bunch was held up.
Marco Canola (Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox), who had led the peloton through the turn, looked back to see just Degenkolb in the distance chasing him. The Italian bolted forward, aware that the biggest win of his life awaited if he could just hold on. It looked possible until the final 200 meters, when the German bulldozed past to take his first Giro d'Italia stage win.
"My lead-out man crashed along with some other guys," said Degenkolb of the hectic finale. "There was one guy in front from Bardiani (Canola). I looked back and there was just Viviani behind. Then I went full gas to the finish to catch the Bardiani rider."
"In the end I couldn't see, I was so empty. It was a great job from my team. We had the confidence and we took the responsibility. It was really hard in the end. It would have been not that hard but I had to suffer a lot to get to the finish today."
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