The early stages at the Tirreno-Adriatico had seen little action from Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Merida) despite his pre-race announcements that he was willing to try to attack.

Just a few km into yesterday’s 5th stage (Ortona-Chieti, 230 km), Cunego escaped from the bunch and took 7 other riders with him. The breakaway built a maximum advantage of 8 minutes before Cannondale and Sky raised the pace of the bunch and so the advantage began to decrease.

Seeing that none of his breakaway companions could maintain his high pace, Cunego preferred to go it alone, trying to hold off the chasing group, but he had to surrender in the early metres of the hills to Chieti.

"I was aware that I could not be as competitive as the top classification contenders,” Cunego said after his failed attempt to snatch the stage win from the favourites. “So I tried to take advantage from a long breakaway. I think my performance was very good, it's a pity none of the breakaway mates could support me in raising the speed to Passo Lanciano."

Once he had been caught on yesterday’s stage, Cunego cracked and came in as number 54 at 8’ 53”. In the overall classification Cunego sits at 41 more than 15 minutes behind Chris Froome (Sky).