Fabio Duarte headed into this year's Giro d'Italia as an outsider for the GC but he got his race off to a bad start when he lost time in today's first hilly stage. It wasn't due to a lack of climbing legs as he got dropped on the wet descent in the finale.

Colombia’s National Champion, Team Colombia’s Miguel Angel Rubiano made his second breakaway in 2014 Giro d’Italia in the 5th stage, Taranto-Viggiano (203 km), featuring the first uphill finish of the current edition. Diego Ulissi(Lampre-Merida) managed to win a reduced sprint at the top of the 5 km ascent the riders had to climb twice, beating Cadel Evans (BMC) and Julian Arredondo (Trek). The pink jersey stood on Michael Matthews’ shoulders, after the Orica-GreenEDGE took sixth on the finish, but tomorrow the Australian’s lead will face another severe test on the way up to Montecassino.

Fabio Duarte was the first Team Colombia rider to the line, 41st at 48 seconds, on a day that did not prove particularly lucky for the Escarabajos, in spite of Miguel Angel Rubiano’s strong breakaway display.

Just after the start in Taranto, characterized by the extremely strong headwind, an 11-man move started with Rubiano in it. The breakaway could open up to 5 minutes on the bunch, led by Orica-GreenEDGE’s strong push. Rubiano’s attack ended with about 25 km to go, just ahead of the last four surrenders. Nevertheless, the Colombian National Champion managed to pass first atop the Serra di San Chirico 3rd category climb, moving within 3 points of Maarten Tjallingii’s blue jersey.

In the first climb to Viggiano, a crash in the middle of the pack involved Edwin Avila along with some more riders – including Samuel Sanchez (BMC) – splitting it into pieces and forcing several riders to make a strong comeback to bridge to the leaders, with Domenico Pozzovivo and Fabio Duarte himself among them.

Duarte could re-join the leaders’ group on the way up, but lost some ground on the descent, become more treacherous due to an intense rain shower that poured on the riders during the first ascent of the final climb.

“Fabio reported he suffered from cold on the descent but tomorrow’s stage will immediately provide another real test to understand what his role in this Giro might be," Sports Director Valerio Tebaldi said. "The GC was not our main goal from the beginning, but 48 seconds won’t compromise things one way or another. If his legs respond well, he will have the chance to get back soon.”

“Rubiano was strong in the breakaway again, on a day that could well give an important chance for brave long-way attackers. Miguel is doing great in putting our approach into practice: being in the action and combative every day, trying to go for a win time after time. In addition, he moved very close to the KOM classification’s lead, and I expect him to try to go for the jersey in the next few days,” Tebaldi concluded.

Rubiano spoke about his breakaway effort:

“Today we spent a huge lot of energy due to the head and crosswinds blowing all the way on the route. It was hard to open a big gap, but I still bagged some good KOM points. I would like to go for the jersey, but probably not tomorrow, in a long stage with just two climbs including the final one. The Giro definitely isn’t short of climbs, after all.”

Tomorrow has the longest stage of the Giro in store for the riders. Sassano-Montecassino, 249 km, will end with a 9 km ascent with a 5% average gradient, that could see the GC men come to the fore.