Portugal’s Afonso Eulalio on Wednesday grabbed the overall lead in the Giro d’Italia despite having victory snatched away by Spaniard Igor Arrieta who recovered from going the wrong way to win a rain-drenched and chaotic stage five.
The Bahrain Victorious rider joined solo leader Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates XRG) at the front near the summit of the Montagna Grande di Viggiano climb with about 2km remaining. Arrieta was just behind Eulalio after they had been on a long breakaway together, but Arrieta misjudged a two-way split in the road, going left and up instead of right and down a slope.
Arrieta soon saw a line of red tape cordoning off the road and frantically turned his bike around. Despite losing valuable time, he still caught and overtook Eulalio with 100m left in an unlikely conclusion.
Photo: EPA
“I don’t really know what to say,” Arrieta said. “When I lost Eulalio in the last 2km, I was like: ‘It’s not possible,’ but then I kept pushing, I saw that he cannot go faster than me, and then when I took his wheel I was like: ‘Maybe I can win.’”
As the dejected Eulalio rolled over the line behind him, Arrieta put his hands on his face in disbelief at the win. The 23-year-old rider then lowered his head as tiredness set in after more than five hours in the saddle amid driving rain and slippery roads.
“I was completely empty in the last kilometers, but I knew Eulalio was also the same,” Arrieta said. “Both of us deserved the victory, but in the end I had it.”
Eulalio had looked in control, but slid to the pavement with about seven of the 203km remaining, allowing Arrieta to catch him. He then appeared to have been gifted the stage when Arrieta got his bearings wrong and had to turn around.
However, Eulalio had nothing left in the legs on the final uphill drag and had to settle for second place, although taking the race lead was some consolation for the 24-year-old.
“I don’t know how I feel; it’s crazy,” he said. “We went all-in for the victory with Arrieta. Igor crashed, then I went alone for victory and the pink, then I crashed, and we were together again. In the final, I think we did a sprint, but it was not really a sprint because we were going super-slowly.”
Arrieta had crashed 13.5km from the end of a cold and wet day that tested the resilience of the peloton.
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