Absolute madness: Arrieta crashes and misses a corner, but somehow wins the Giro stage ahead of new pink jersey wearer

Igor Arrieta of UAE Team Emirates-XRG has won a completely extraordinary fifth stage of the Giro d'Italia — despite crashing and missing a corner in the final ten kilometres. Breakaway companion Afonso Eulalio of Bahrain Victorious also went down, but was caught in the closing metres, and Eulalio inherits the pink jersey by a wide margin.

After four stages, real time differences in the general classification had still not materialised. Giulio Ciccone had taken the maglia rosa in stage four by finishing third and collecting bonus seconds — but heading into stage five, 25 riders were still within ten seconds of each other, everyone still believing their chance would come.

Wednesday's stage, however, was no walk in the park: 3,700 metres of climbing over 203 kilometres. A neat footnote: Potenza was where Koen Bouwman took the first of his two Giro stage wins in 2022, with his teammate Tom Dumoulin delivering him to a phenomenal victory.

The chaos that had been forecast duly arrived. The pace was high from the gun, and the rain was falling in sheets almost immediately. A number of brave riders tried to get clear, but the efforts of Lidl-Trek and Visma | Lease a Bike — maintaining a high tempo — kept them all in check.

On the stage's first climb, Jan Christen of UAE ensured the big names had to stay alert early. The pink jersey of Ciccone was visible near the front with still more than 180 kilometres remaining — and he was far from the only GC rider showing himself early.

A trio of Afonso Eulalio (Bahrain Victorious), Einer Rubio (Movistar) and Guillermo Thomas Silva (XDS Astana) managed to get clear just before the summit, and Victor Campenaerts of Visma | Lease a Bike made the bridge across. Gianmarco Garofoli of Soudal Quick-Step joined them too, giving a leading group of five — though the peloton was not prepared to simply let them go.

That hesitation allowed a larger group to jump across. Thirteen riders in total went clear, though Groupama-FDJ United missed the move and the peloton behind them remained nervous. The French team eventually accepted the situation, and the lead group's advantage rapidly climbed to two minutes. Darren Rafferty of EF Education-EasyPost also joined, bringing the total to thirteen.

Beyond those already named, the break also contained Jhonatan Narváez, Igor Arrieta (both UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Christian Scaroni (XDS Astana), Manuele Tarozzi (Bardiani CSF), Lorenzo Milesi (Movistar), Ben Turner (Netcompany INEOS) and Martin Tjøtta (Uno-X Mobility). In the torrential rain, though, genuine cooperation was hard to come by. Lidl-Trek exploited that, keeping the gap below two minutes for a long time — until Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe took over as the Montagna di Viggiano (6.6km at 9.2%) approached.

With the peloton on their heels, the racing in the break came to life early on the climb. Arrieta attacked and quickly opened a gap of 45 seconds, while the main group reached the foot of the Viggiano already one minute 45 behind the front. From that point, however, a standoff developed: the peloton was not pushing hard on the climb, and Arrieta found himself under immediate pressure from Eulalio up front.

That duo would settle the stage between them — not what had seemed likely after the frantic opening. In the peloton, Ciccone was left to defend his pink jersey alone, and cracked on the climb. The race leader's jersey was heading to Eulalio, who had the best GC position of anyone in the front group after Rubio was dropped.

Back in the peloton, the gap kept growing, which meant that Arrieta — ninth at the World Championships in Rwanda last year — suddenly found himself with a comfortable lead and the potential to wear the pink jersey all the way through to Friday's Blockhaus summit finish. Visma | Lease a Bike and Vingegaard, like the other GC teams, appeared relaxed about that prospect.

Up front, things were anything but relaxed on the wet, twisting descent. Arrieta was repeatedly struggling to match Eulalio's pace, and crashed heavily with thirteen kilometres to go — then compounded his misfortune by struggling to remount and getting tangled with his bike as his stage win seemingly slipped away. Eulalio appeared to have benefited to the maximum — but then, at six kilometres from the finish, he too hit the deck.

The Portuguese rider went down considerably harder than his opponent, and suddenly they were back together going into the last few kilometres of this extraordinary stage. Arrieta rode the finale with the rattle of the crashes still clearly in his legs — most visibly when he missed a corner with just two kilometres to go.

Yet the Spaniard gritted his teeth, dug deep, and caught Eulalio in the final stretch with the finish line in sight — after a finale that will take some time to process. The peloton rolled in seven minutes back.