Jan Polanc, 23 years old, won the 5th stage of the Giro d'Italia, 152 km from La Spezia to the summit finish in Abetone.

The victory was obtained in the most familiar way for the Slovenian rider at the end of a long breakaway that began 20 km into the race with 5 members (Polanc, Tvetcov, Chavanel, Dillier and Domont) and had a maximum advantage of 10'.

Polanc raced in a perfect way, especially on the final climb, remaining as solo leader with 10 km to go: he succeeded in reaching the finish as the first rider, despite the acceleration of the bunch. Chavanel was 2nd at 1'13", followed by  Aru, Contador and Porte.
Contador is the new leader of the overall classification, Niemiec (today 18th at 2'06") is 28th at 5'10".

Polanc is the leader of the King of the Mountain classification (he'll wear the blue jersey), he won the Premio della Fuga and the Premio Combattività, while LAMPRE-MERIDA won the prize as Super Team.

Polanc turned pro in August 2013 and this is his second participation in the Giro d'Italia. Today he obtained his first victory as a pro (in the Under 23 category he won the Giro della Regione Friuli and the Piccolo Lombardia).

"It's such a great emotion to obtain my first victory in a special race like the Giro d'Italia and in an important finish as the Abetone," he said. "I won in the way I like the most: attacking. "In my pro career, I often rode in the breakaways in top races, for instance in the Oropa stage in the 2014 Giro d'Italia, in the GP Quebec and in the GP Montreal, in the Giro di Lombardia and this season in the Amstel Gold Race. Today I succeeded in completing the breakaway with a victory.

"My task for today was to join the breakaways and so I did. Thanks to the cooperation between my breakaway mates we could hold off the chase of the bunch and on the final climb I knew I was the stronger, so I waited for the best moment to attack. 

"This victory is a birthday present for me, because I celebrated my birthday when I was traveling to Sanremo on the 6th of May, and for the team and the sponsor which support us with passion.

"At the foot of the final climb, they told me not to go 100% so I rode at about 90%, and then in the last kilometres I went full gas. They were repeating all the time, don't go too deep, because the climb was long. In the final 5-4 km it wasn't so steep so it was easier. If it had been steeper, it would have been hard to keep the top riders behind.

I rode with Davide Formolo in Juniors, so I know him well. He won yesterday, I won today, and it's really nice to see the riders I know winning stages. I hope the Giro d'Italia continues like this.

"My father Marko is a coach in my old team, Sava, in Slovenia, so I went with him to the races when I was a boy. I started to like cycling, and I started racing aged 12. To start with I wasn't strong because I was small, but I got better every year. Then I won my first race, and at Under-23 level I got good results and I turned pro with Lampre - Merida. They have given me good support and they brought me to the Giro d'Italia. They have given me opportunities to get into breakaways, which I have done a lot this year. I'm very happy with this first pro win."