The Australian Kaden Groves was the winner of the fifth stage of the 2023 Giro d’Italia, on a day of many accidents among the favourites, and in which the rain was the protagonist of the day, as it left a rather complicated finish, but finally avoided by the platoon.
The day between Atripalda and Salerno, of 171 km, was disastrous, quite strong, with many crashes and several men who were quite affected. From the beginning to the end, there were tense moments, but luckily without transcendent consequence in the accumulated times.
The star Remco Evenepoel suffered two falls, the first caused by a dog that got into the road and made him fall. Later, with their weight wet from the constant rain, other riders slipped and could not control the bike, but one of the favorites in the pink jersey kept up the pace.
Between this incident and the harsh weather with no sign of improving, the peloton took it very calmly, accumulating a certain delay on the scheduled times, although without letting a small escape go beyond a safe distance given the few occasions to show off. that the fast men have in this Giro d’Italia.
Little by little, as the pace accelerated towards the end, the breakaways began to fall, except for Zoccarato who kept up with the peloton alone until a little over six kilometers from the finish, just at the same moment that it occurred. an untimely crash in the peloton that left the Colombian Fernando Gaviria cut off and also affected the Slovenian Primoz Roglic, who was forced to change bikes with one of his teammates to avoid wasting time.
As there were not enough emotions, less than those last 3 kilometers Evenepoel made the sharpener with the runner who preceded him and went back to the ground, again and luckily, apparently without consequences beyond the feeling of frustration that he denoted her face.
Finally, after all the incidents, the sprint was held in a very small group of just over 20 riders. At 200 meters Kaden Groves launched himself with enormous strength that allowed him to prevail with absolute clarity and remove the thorn of the two third places harvested in the second and third stages.
He could not finish the party quietly because, a few meters behind, Mark Cavendish tried to come back, his wheel skidded on the white line of the road, he managed to save it in the first instance and when trying to recover his position he went to the sharpener and left to the ground in a spectacular way in a fall that had no major consequences of pure miracle. Still sliding on the asphalt, the Briton achieved a creditable fifth position.
Classification Stage 5
1.- Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 4h30’19”
2.- Jonathan Milan (Bahrain-Victorious) m.t.
3.- Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) m.t.
4.- Alberto Dainese (Team DSM) m.t.
5.- Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazqstan) m.t.
General ranking
1.- Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM) 19h06’03’’
2.- Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) +28”
3.- Aurélien Paret-Peintre (AG2R Citroën) +30’’
4.- Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +1’00”
5.- Primoz Rogliz (Jumbo-Visma) +1’12”