Stage 5

The road

At the start

De Marchi in pink, and a straight road

Alessandro De Marchi wears the maglia rosa after eleven years of trying, twenty-two seconds up on Joe Dombrowski, and the Apennines have rearranged the rest: Almeida lost 4:21 at Sestola, Nibali and Hindley half a minute. Today the race arrows down the old Via Aemilia from Modena to the Adriatic at Cattolica, 177 kilometres so flat the only real question is the wind, and whether Ewan or Viviani can beat Nizzolo.

How it was won

1. 1107 km to go

   Nobody wants the break

   The two early escapees are reeled in at the intermediate sprint and the peloton looks around for someone willing to ride. Pellaud and Gabburo eventually oblige out of sheer duty.

2. 216 km to go

   Sivakov goes down

   Inside the final sixteen kilometres Ineos's co-leader hits the deck, and van Garderen follows him on a tight left-hander. A stage designed to be routine is quietly dismantling the general classification.

3. 34 km to go

   Landa's Giro ends on a traffic island

   With 4.3km to go a rider strikes road furniture the marshal was meant to be flagging, and Mikel Landa and Joe Dombrowski go down with him. Landa is treated at the roadside, taken to hospital and out of the race — a genuine podium contender removed from the Giro on the flattest day of the first week.

4. 4At the line

   Ewan in Cattolica

   Through the tight final corners Ewan backs off, latches onto Viviani's sprint at 125 metres and comes over the top of both the Italian and Nizzolo for his first win of the race.

The result