Stage 5

The road

At the start

A sprint with a climb in the way

Paolini keeps the pink for a third day, Urán at seventeen seconds, Intxausti at twenty-six, Nibali at thirty-one; Sandy Casar did not start yesterday. Today looks like a sprint stage and is not quite one — the Montescaglioso comes twenty kilometres from Matera, and it will decide which of the fast men are still there to contest it.

How it was won

1. 119 km to go

   Montescaglioso drops Cavendish

   Argos-Shimano mass at the front for Degenkolb and the climb starts eating sprinters. Steegmans sits up first; with five hundred metres of the ascent left Cavendish's shoulders begin to weave, and he is gone. Teammates wait for him over the top, and it makes no difference at all.

2. 21 km to go

   Dominoes on a wet left-hander

   Argos have the sprint set up, Degenkolb and Vicioso and Viviani all in position — and then a tight left-hand corner on soaked tarmac takes the front of the race down like a row of dominoes.

3. 3At the line

   Degenkolb sprints for eight hundred metres

   The crash makes his job easier and very much longer. John Degenkolb goes from eight hundred metres out and holds it to the line ahead of Vicioso and Martens — the expected winner, in entirely unexpected circumstances. Paolini stays upright and keeps the pink.

The result