Pascal Ackermann won a sprint finish in the pouring rain in the Giro d’Italia fifth stage on Wednesday, claiming his second victory in this year’s race as Tom Dumoulin withdrew a day after picking up a knee injury in a crash.
The Bora-hansgrohe rider edged Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) as Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) managed to get back up to take third after he was poorly positioned as the sprint unfolded.
The final nine kilometres did not have an impact on the overall times because they were neutralised because of poor weather conditions.
Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) holds a 35sec overall race lead after the 140km stage ahead of Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) with Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) third at 39sec.
“It was scary all day under the rain,” said Ackermann. “It was a two-time sprint today. I had to brake at 250 metres to go but luckily Gaviria became the perfect lead out man for me. I had a lot of power in the end.”
Belgian Louis Vervaeke had led a long breakaway after the race started in Frascati, to the southeast of Rome, before being caught 23km from the line.
It was a particularly miserable day for Tom Dumoulin, the 2017 Giro winner. The Sunweb rider started the stage, but once he started pedalling realised he could not continue.
“For me it’s terrible,” said Dumoulin. “Months and weeks of preparation and dedication went into this Giro and in one moment it’s over.”
“It’s not how I wanted it to go of course, but it is how it is,” he continued. “I don’t know how bad the injury is, we only know that nothing is broken and it will probably just be swollen for a few days, but we have to see. For now I will just rest and see how it goes.”
Thursday’s sixth stage covers 238km from Cassino to San Giovanni Rotondo, in the Puglia region of south-western Italy, with the riders hitting the Coppa Casarinelle climb with a 4.4km gradient 15km from the finish line.
Giro d’Italia 2019 – stage 5 results (Frascati – Terracina):
| 1 | Pascal Ackermann (Bora-hansgrohe) | 3:15:44 |
| 2 | Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 3 | Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) | ,, |
| 4 | Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) | ,, |
| 5 | Matteo Moschetti (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 6 | Ryan Gibbons (Dimension Data) | ,, |
| 7 | Paolo Simion (Bardiani-CSF) | ,, |
| 8 | Jenthe Biermans (Katusha-Alpecin) | ,, |
| 9 | Giovanni Lonardi (Nippo-Vini Fantini-Faizane) | ,, |
| 10 | Manuel Belletti (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec) | ,, |
| 11 | Davide Cimolai (Israel Cycling Academy) | ,, |
| 12 | Josef Cerny (CCC) | ,, |
| 13 | Sean Bennett (EF Education First) | ,, |
| 14 | Juan Jose Lobato (Nippo-Vini Fantini-Faizane) | ,, |
| 15 | Rudiger Selig (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 16 | Giacomo Nizzolo (Dimension Data) | ,, |
| 17 | Simone Consonni (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 18 | Jacopo Guarnieri (Groupama-FDJ) | ,, |
| 19 | Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | ,, |
| 20 | Marco Haller (Katusha-Alpecin) | ,, |
Giro d’Italia 2019 – general classification after stage 5:
| 1 | Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) | 19:35:04 |
| 2 | Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | +35” |
| 3 | Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain – Merida) | +39” |
| 4 | Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) | +44” |
| 5 | Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 6 | Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe) | +49” |
| 7 | Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) | +55” |
| 8 | Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Merida) | +56” |
| 9 | Bob Jungels (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | +01’02” |
| 10 | Davide Formolo (Bora-hansgrohe) | +01’06” |
| 11 | Victor de la Parte (CCC) | +01’10” |
| 12 | Pello Bilbao (Astana) | +01’16” |
| 13 | Hugh Carthy (EF Education First) | ,, |
| 14 | Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 15 | Tony Gallopin (AG2R La Mondiale) | +01’18” |
| 16 | Richard Carapaz (Movistar) | +01’21” |
| 17 | Pavel Sivakov (Team Ineos) | +01’24” |
| 18 | Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) | +01’36” |
| 19 | Pascal Ackermann (Bora-hansgrohe) | +01’37” |
| 20 | Jan Polanc (UAE Team Emirates) | +01’39” |
