German rider Andre Greipel won a mass sprint by a large margin to take the fifth stage of the Giro d’Italia on Wednesday, while Tom Dumoulin held onto the overall leader’s maglia rosa.
Greipel surged ahead on the final straight and had time to raise his arms before crossing the line.
It was Greipel’s 18th stage win in a Grand Tour — four at the Giro, 10 at the Tour de France and four in the Vuelta a Espana — and the 130th victory of his career.
Photo: EPA
“Chapeau to my teammates today. It was hard for them to chase down the break, but they continued to work for me even if the other teams didn’t help us,” Greipel said.
“In the sprint I tried not to be blocked in. There was still 300m to go, but I felt good and decided to go for it,” he said.
Riding for the Lotto-Soudal team, Greipel clocked nearly six hours over the hilly 233km route from Praia to Benevento, Italy.
It was the second-longest stage of this year’s race.
FDJ’s Arnaud Demare crossed the line in second place and Sonny Colbrelli of Bardiani-CSF was third.
Etixx-QuickStep rider Marcel Kittel, the German who won the opening two sprint stages in the Netherlands, lost contact with the peloton over the final few kilometers.
“I just wasn’t strong enough today,” Kittel said.
Dumoulin of Giant-Alpecin was 16 seconds ahead of teammate Bob Jungels, with Diego Ulissi of Lampre-Merida third overall, 20 seconds behind.
Movistar’s Alejandro Valverde, one of the favorites for the overall title, gained four seconds on rivals Vincenzo Nibali of Astana and Team Sky’s Mikel Landa, who got caught behind a fall on the final curve.
An early breakaway of four riders — Daniel Oss, Alexander Foliforov, Amets Txurukka and Pavel Brutt — gained a lead of several minutes before being caught by the peloton with less than 10km to go.
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