2018 Giro d'Italia Stage 5 Results & Recap
Stage 5 of the 2018 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
Battaglin wins first Giro stage in four years\nBy Clara Beard\nOn an unpredictable finale, Enrico Battaglin (LottoNL-Jumbo) played his cards perfectly to take top honors on the fifth stage of the Giro d’Italia after sprinting past Giovanni Visconti (Bahrain-Merida) and José Gonçalves (Katusha-Alpecin), who finished second and third respectively after the 153-km stage.
“Today’s finish was different from yesterday’s,” Battaglin said. “It was a very powerful one yesterday. I was more at ease here. The Giro is very important for me every year. I’m extremely happy to be a stage winner again. I want to continue the race this way.”
Battaglin went into the stage as the pre-race favorite, however the last five kilometres were so technical, it was anyone’s guess who would navigate the tight roads punctuated by roundabouts and a short, sharp climb to take victory.
In the race for the maglia rosa, Rohan Dennis finished in the front group safely and will hold on to his lead for another day. Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) is second at one second back while Simon Yates is third at 17 seconds.
“It was a nice day on the bike, on quite a slow pace because of the head wind,” Dennis said to reporters after the stage. “I felt a bit of stress every now and then but I am glad to be in the Maglia Rosa. We’re only on day five, that means sixteen days to go. Tomorrow will be another story with the Etna. I’m looking forward to see how I’ll go up there.”
Despite the relatively short distance of 153 km from Agrigento to Santa Ninfa, the peloton was in no hurry to get to the finish, perhaps an attempt to save their legs before the first real mountain test tomorrow up Mt. Etna.
After the official start, Irish champion Ryan Mullen (Trek-Segafredo) instigated a break and took Eugert Zhupa (Wilier Triestina-Selle Italia) and Andrea Vendrame (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec) along for the day. Mullen’s teammate, Laurent Didier (Trek-Segafredo) eventually bridged across.
With no threat to GC, KOM or sprint standings in the break, the peloton was content to let the quartet up the road, letting them gain a maximum of five minutes before Lotto Fix All came to the front to take over the work from BMC. Lotto brought the advantage down to hover between two and three minutes.
With 30 kilometres to go, Didier tried his hand with an early attack. He couldn’t dispatch Vendrame, who countered his move and continued on alone until about four kilometres to go, when the peloton swallowed up the lone Italian.
It was a drag race toward Santa Ninfa, and Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) launched a move under the 1km to go banner that was quickly neutralized by Visconti. The lead kept changing hands, but it was Battaglin who was without a doubt the strongest on the day, leaving Visconti and Gonçalves in his wake.
Get our full coverage of the Giro d'Italia and every race we cover with our mobile app! The apps have over 100 additional exclusive features, including our award-winning Time Machine feature that lets you pause/rewind/replay the entire app to sync with delayed race video, integrated Fantasy Cycling, push notifications, an integrated news feed, live GPS tracking, world-class commentary, and our animated interactive maps and profiles.
