Benjamin Thomas won the 5th stage of the Giro d’Italia in Lucca, surprising all the sprinters, joining a 4-man breakaway that ended up being a winner. A stage that was characterized by many distractions and just as many tumbles which saw top-tier names as protagonists, from Laporte to Woods, from Foss to Attila Valter.
The 5th stage was supposed to finish in a sprint with arrival in Lucca and so it happened: Thomas won with an excellent sprint ahead of Valgren. But there wasn’t a general “flying by” because there was an escape that surprised everyone, with 4 riders taking the lead over the sprinters’ teams. An advance that shook the final stage with the group’s difficulty in taking the initiative so as not to fail in the sprint. The absolute protagonists were Andrea Pietrobon (Team Polti Kometa), Enzo Paleni (Groupama – FDJ), Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis) and Michael Valgren (EF Education – EasyPost) who outwitted the rest of the peloton.
A straight stage except for a GPM in the first part of the route which didn’t worry anyone, neither ranking men nor sprinters of the day who competed for the sprint in Lucca. But there was no boredom during stage number five in Tuscany because there were so many crashes. All for more or less banal and beginners’ distractions but which risked seeing several of the most anticipated protagonists skip out, including Christophe Laporte the captain of the Visma | Lease a Bike who took over the role of the injured Wout van Aert.
The Frenchman himself, the reigning European champion, was the protagonist of an unforgivable carelessness when, during an intermediate sprint, he got distracted not seeing a manhole, suddenly finding himself on the ground without understanding the reason. A gross tumble the consequences of which were clearly seen on Laporte who then left annoyed and in bad shape, skinned and sore.
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But he wasn’t the only one to give his worst in a stage that was anything but complicated. A little further on, in the middle of the group, others ended up on the ground, not seeing a traffic island. Another unforgivable mistake on the part of seasoned professionals with several runners who found themselves on the asphalt, more or less with bumps, cuts and scratches. Whoever had the worst was Lonardi who ended up with a bloody elbow. Unfortunately, however, it wasn’t the last fall of the day because shortly after there was another one also caused by obvious distractions.
So, too on a stretch of pure straight with a very wide and smooth road, this time other cyclists found themselves in the middle of the grass. All for a banal skid with a chain effect that involved a dozen riders, including Attila Valter, Tobias Foss and Michael Woods, top-tier names, who fortunately all got back on their bikes without serious consequences.
