Nervous finish before Etna’s first big test
09 May 2018

Giro d'Italia (st. 5)

Pile-up in approach to Santa Ninfa splits main group, with three Movistar Team -Betancur, Valls and Carapaz- within GC contenders. Battaglin (TLJ) wins stage five; Dennis (BMC) remains in pink.

It was a windy, somewhat chaotic day five of the 2018 Giro d’Italia, held on Wednesday over 153km in Sicily, from Agrigento to Santa Ninfa in the Belice valley. Local rider Enrico Battaglin (TLJ) won a restricted group’s sprint (40 units) after a very lively finale, overshadowed by a big split caused by a pile-up with 13km remaining.

The incident, which did not hurt any of the Movistar Team riders, left behind Pedrero, Sepúlveda and Rubén Fernández, while Dayer Quintana and Víctor de la Parte also saw their chances to finish in the main group decisively reduced. Fortunately, the three Blues in the best positions overall so far in the race -Carlos Betancur, Rafa Valls and Richard Carapaz- were able get back to the front or come safely through the incident, and overcame the final kick before the line with the GC contenders, no more splits happening in the end.

Betancur momentarily leaves the GC’s top-ten -he now sits in 11th place, 35″ behind Rohan Dennis (BMC), as Gonçalves (TKA), who was behind Carlos in the overall standings, took a four-second bonus as 3rd behind Giovanni Visconti (TBM)- and remains, just like his two team-mates, in a good position before the first ‘judge’ of this year’s Giro: the Etna climb. The Cat-1 volcano, a 15km final ascent at around 6.5% gradient, will be tackled over an inedit route, putting an end to a very lumpy 169km starting at Caltanissetta.

REACTION:

Richard Carapaz: “The crash in the finale affected some of my team-mates as well as myself, so we had to take a big effort to bridge back to the GC group in the finale. Luckily, we were able to rejoin and get through this difficult final section inside a broader peloton, both Carlos, Rafa and me. Tomorrow’s stage is one of my favourite day’s in this year’s Giro, and we hope to get a good result and improve our current position overall. Let’s hope it’s a good day!”

Picture (c): BettiniPhoto.net