John Degenkolb fulfilled the Giro objective of his Argos-Shimano team when he managed to avoid a crash from his lead-out man Luka Mezgec in the final corner of today's fifth stage of the Giro d'Italia and powered clear to take a hugely convincing win. With Marco Canola (Bardiani) alone up the road he had to make a very long sprint on the slightly uphill finishing straight and was completely exhausted when he crossed the line.

Without any GC rider in their line-up, the Argos-Shimano team started the Giro d'Italia with the sole objective of bringing in stage wins in the sprint stages via John Degenkolb. After having been caught up behind the crash in his first opportunity in stage 1 the big German sprinter was the one benefitting from a tumble in the finale of today's fifth stage and he took his team's first ever Giro win in their very first participation in the race.

It was a blessing in disguise for the Dutch team when his final lead-out man Luke Mezgec crashed in the final left-hand corner with 750 meters to go. The tumble took most of his rivals out of contention and instead of battling the other sprint in a mad dash to the line, he was left with the task of catching the lone Marco Canola who was the only one ahead of Mezgec when he crashed.

Opening up a long sprint he managed to catch the Italian with 250m to go and he still had enough energy to power clear to take a victory before he fell to the ground completely exhausted from his effort.

“I was just behind the crash," he said. "It was pretty slippery and wet. They went a bit too fast into the second-last corner, and luckily there was a small gap behind them, so that I could still brake and get around the crash. I was out of my pedals, so I put my feet back in the pedals and accelerated. The Bardiani rider (Marco Canola, ed.) made the corner and was first to get away. I looked around and realized it was everything or nothing. I knew I had to give it everything. My sprint lasted 1km. It was really hard, I really suffered, and my lactate must have been at 35 in the end!”

The stage had two climbs in its final part and appeared to be tailor-made for the characteristics of the big German. Hence, the team had marked it out as a perfect opportunity to go for the stage win and with Cheng Ji and Tobias Ludvigsson on the front they did a huge effort to bring back the day's early escape.

“We knew that it was a stage that suited me today," he said. "But I was on the limit and it was so hard right up until the end. We had to suffer a lot, but I got the team’s confidence today. We controlled the whole race and they worked hard to keep me there so it is victory for all of us—a great day for Team Argos-Shimano."

Degenholb had a hugely successful Vuelta last year as he was the race's dominant sprinter and took no less than 5 stage wins. However, he has had a difficult start to the season and today's win was his first since the Spanish grand tour.

“It’s a pretty important win for me," he said. "Last year, at the Vuelta, everything was flowing for the team and me. I was winning and winning, and I still can’t believe I won five stages. I’m happy to be back in the business of winning. For a sprinter or a classics rider like me, every week, every month you don’t win, is pretty unpleasant. You’re waiting, the team is waiting. I’m happy I’ve proven that I’m a captain again, and I can give back to my team-mates what they give me.”

Degenkolb is part of a new generation of German stars who are all successful on the biggest team. The sport has been struggling in Germany in recent years due to the many doping scandals and there is no longer a German ProTeam. Furthermore, many of the big German races have disappeared from the calendar.

Degenkolb is happy to be part of a revival of the sport in his home country.

“It’s important to German cycling that this new generation is having victories: Tony Martin, Marcel Kittel, myself," he said. "We’re all good friends and we have a big responsibility to promote clean and transparent cycling. I feel very responsible for this.”

Sports director Addy Engels was especially happy to see the win come as a result of strong teamwork. When Omega Pharma-Quick Step stopped chasing with around 80km to go, it was left to the Orica-GreenEdge and Argos-Shimano teams to close down the gap to today's early move.

 “It was a great day for us," he said. "The break pulled out to six minutes before we decided to work. Other teams saw that it was becoming too difficult, so we really had to work for it today, and that made it even more special that we won. In the finale we had Luka, Thomas Damuseau and John in the front group. Luka and Thomas did a terrific job in the finale getting John into the best position possible."

“There was a tense moment after the crash, but then we saw that John had made it through, and he brought home the win. We highlighted this stage, with its difficult finish, as a target, and it is fantastic that we actually did it. All the hard work has paid off.”

Degenkolb will get another chance to show his strength in tomorrow's sixth stage which is expected to end in a big bunch sprint as the route is completely flat. Starting at 14.15 you can follow the action on CyclingQuotes.com/live.