Spain's Igor Arrieta claimed victory on stage five of the Giro d'Italia in a dramatic finale, overcoming a crash and a wrong turn to snatch the win from Portugal's Afonso Eulálio in Potenza on Wednesday.
Chaotic final kilometres
The rain-drenched stage saw Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious) break away near the summit of the Montagna Grande di Viggiano climb. With the finish line in sight, Arrieta took a wrong turn at a junction, appearing to hand the stage to Eulálio. However, the Spanish rider, visibly frustrated and banging his handlebars, fought back and reeled in Eulálio along the finishing straight to secure his first Grand Tour stage victory.
"I was completely empty after the hard stage but so was Eulálio," Arrieta said. "I kept pushing and when I got his wheel I knew he couldn't go faster than me and thought I could win the stage."
Eulálio takes pink jersey
Eulálio had earlier crashed with around 7km remaining, allowing Arrieta to catch him. Despite losing the stage, the Portuguese rider took the maglia rosa (pink jersey) as the new overall leader. He now leads the general classification by 2 minutes 51 seconds over Arrieta, with Christian Scaroni in third place, 3:34 back.
Italian Giulio Ciccone, who started the stage in the pink jersey, finished seven minutes behind in the main group and dropped to sixth overall.
Arrieta's resilience
Arrieta also crashed 13.5km from the finish on a cold and wet day that tested the peloton's resilience. His victory was a boost for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, which lost riders Adam Yates, Jay Vine, and Marc Soler to a massive pile-up during stage two in Bulgaria.
"I'm really, really happy to achieve this victory, it means a lot for me, because of the crash [on stage two] and all the teammates who went home," Arrieta said.
Stage six preview
Thursday's sixth stage is a 142km ride from Paestum to Napoli, passing near Mount Vesuvius.
