Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) proved his excellent puncheur qualities when he won today's first uphill finish in the Giro d'Italia by producing a perfectly timed and very impressive sprint. Being in a class of his own, he put 1 second into his rivals while Cadel Evans (BMC) narrowly edged out Julian Arredondo (Trek) in the battle for second to score important bonus seconds. Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE) did a heroic effort in the final to take sixth and so defend his overall lead.

 

After a disappointing Ardennes campaign, Diego Ulissi has lined up at the Giro d'Italia with the intention of taking as many stage wins as possible and today he proved that he has prepared himself perfectly for his home grand tour. When the Giro peloton hit the climbs in the fifth stage, he used his excellent puncheur skills to power clear in the uphill sprint for his second ever stage victory in the race.

 

Crashes, rain and a hard pace made it a chaotic finale that saw the peloton splinter to pieces on the finishing circuit that both included a long gradual uphill to the finish and a very technical descent. Gianluca Brambilla (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) seemed to deny the race favourites when he launched a gutsy move on the wet descent and quickly build up a 30-second lead.

 

However, Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) had set his sights on the bonus seconds and so he sent his troops to the front of the 30-40 rider peloton. The Russian team neutralized the Italian's move, bringing it all back together for the expected uphill sprint,

 

Daniel Moreno produced a fantastic lead-out for his captain and he went so fast that only Rodriguez, Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky) and Julian Arredondo (Trek) could keep up with him. However, he had gone to early and when he swung off, Rodriguez found himself in the wind too early.

 

Michael Matthews had hoped to win the stage but now had to shift his attention to a defence of his jersey and so did a valiant effort to bring the rest of the splintering group of favourites back up to the three leaders. Rodriguez was still on the front and finally tried to make a long sprint.

 

At the same time, Cadel Evans moved up on the left-hand side of the road and he had Ulissi on his wheel. The Italian timed his move perfectly and flew past all his rivals to open up a massive gap.

 

While Ulissi soloed across the line, Evans and Arredondo went head to head in the battle for second, with the Australian narrowly edging out his Colombian rival. They crossed the line 1 second behind Ulissi and had the rest of the race favourites in tow.

 

Matthews crossed the line in 6th and so defended his leader's jersey. With Alessandro Petacchi and Daniel Oss both dropping off in the finale, he even extended his lead to 14 seconds over his teammate Pieter Weening who moved into second.

 

He faces an even tougher ask tomorrow when the race continues with a mammoth 247km stage from Sassano to Montecassino. It's an almost completely flat affair but has a nasty sting in the tail as it ends on the top of an 8.7km 2nd category climb which has an average gradient of 5.7%.

 

The first hilly stage

After three consecutive days for the sprinters, the Giro d'Italia peloton finally reached hillier terrain in today's fifths stage of the race. It brought the riders over 203km from Taranto to Viggiano and after a flat opening part along the Ionian sea, the second half was significantly tougher. First the riders went up a category 3 climb before it all came to a conclusion on a 13.1km finishing circuit in Viggano. It contained a technical descent and a category 4 climb to the finish, meaning that the riders would tackle the ascent twice inside the final 20km.

 

All 195 riders who finished yesterday's stage headed on today's stage as Giorgio Cecchinel (Neri Sottoli) who had been a possible non-starter due to a fever, decided to give it a try. After the recent rainy days, the riders were pleased to finally take off in dry conditions but there was a rather strong wind blowing against them for most of the stage.

 

A strong group takes off

For the first time in this year's race, it was a rather animated start to the stage as the lumpy profile made it more likely that an early break could stay away. The opening part of the stage was characterized by several attacks but the riders got to the 22km mark before the elastic finally snapped.

 

At that point, a rather strong 11-rider group took off and it was clear that the battle for the red points jersey is fully on as it contained two riders who are in contention for the coveted tunic. Ben Swift (Sky) and Elia Viviani (Cannondale) had both made it into the move and they were joined by fellow sprinters Kenny Dehaes (Lotto Belisol), Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp), Tony Hurel (Europcar) and Tosh van der Sande (Lotto Belisol). The rest of the group was made up of Yonathan Monsalve (YellowFluo), Miguel Angel Rubiano (Colombia), Fabian Wegmann (Garmin-Sharp), Bjorn Thurau (Europcar) and Marco Frapporti (Androni).

 

Orica take control

The group started to build a gap and at the 24km mark they were already 1.30 ahead. From there, however, the advantage grew very slowing and was only 2 minutes after 34km of racing.

 

In the peloton Orica-GreenEDGE hit the front as Michael Matthews has made it clear that this stage is his best chance of the entire race. They allowed the gap to grow steadily and at the 60km mark, it was 4.14.

 

Swift scores points

After 75km of racing, the sprinters reached their target when they contested the intermediate sprint in Montalbano Jonico. The slightly uphill straight suited Swift perfectly and he beat Viviani and Farrar in the battle for maximum points. At the 80km mark, the gap had grown even more and was now 5.30.

 

That was when Orica-GreenEDGE decided to really up the pace, and Mitchell Docker, Cameron Meyer, Svein Tuft and Michael Hepburn started to swap turns on the front. With 100km to go, they had the gap down to 3.50.

 

Orica ride hard on the front

Hitting a crosswind section, they really strung out the peloton but no gaps occurred and things slowed down a bit. At that point, however, the gap was down to 3.20, prompting the escapees to give it their all.

 

Matthews exploited the situation to take a natural break and the gap went back up to more than 4 minutes. They started to roll again as they hit the category 3 climb 70km from the finish.

 

Rubiano wins the KOM sprint

The escapees battled hard for the points and the tactical battle allowed Frapporti to get an unintentional gap. Monsalve joined him and Rubiano brought the group back together.

 

Thurau tried to do a long sprint but he was passed by Rubiano, Monsalve and Wegmann and had to settle for fourth. Those four riders got a slight gap but things came back together on the descent.

 

Van der Sande starts to attack

Docker had now stopped working but Tuft, Hepburn and Meyer had brought the gap down to 3 minutes at the top. They continued to ride hard on the descent and with 50km to go, the advantage was only 1.40.

 

That's when the escapees started to attack each other. Van der Sande tried to make two moves and each time he got a small gap that was ultimately neutralized. Next his teammate Dehaes gave it a go but he had no success either.

 

The break splits up

The battle for position in the peloton had now really ramped up and that increased the pace even further. 27km from the line, the gap was only 55 seconds and so van der Sande took off again.

 

This time he had more success as he was only joined by Frapporti, Thurau and Monsalve. While the quartet pressed on, the rest of the escapees were caught.

 

A fierce battle for position

The Orica riders were now getting swamped by the fierce battle for position, with Lampre, OPQS and Giant all playing prominent roles. As they hit the final climb for the first time, the peloton started to splinter as Orica again hit the front.

 

The front quartet split up as Frapporti and later also Monsalve were both caught. Van der Sande couldn't keep up with Thurau and the German was now the only surviving escapee.

 

A crash splits the peloton

Petacchi hit the front for OPQS and when he swung off, BMC took over for Evans. While Ben Hermans and Steve Morabito set a brutal pace, a crash happened near the front and the peloton split in two.

 

Riders like Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r) and Ivan Santaromita (Orica) found themselves caught out and while the former managed to rejoin the peloton, the latter never made the junction.

 

Thurau is caught

With 14km to go, BMC brought Thurau back and then Katusha took over to make sure that Rodriguez was in good position for the technical descent. It had now started to rain and it was virtually a sprint to start the downhill section near the front.

 

Vicioso led Rodriguez over the top of the climb while Boasson Hagen took over on the descent. Brambilla hit the front in a series of turns and quickly got a big gap while the peloton splintered in the treacherous conditions.

 

Katusha drop the hammer

As they finished the descent, the peloton briefly slowed down, allowing Brambilla to extend his gap to 30 seconds. Davide Malacarne (Europcar) took off but he was caught when Sky and BMC started to chase.

 

Morabito and Salvatore Puccio set the early pace until Katusha took over. Alberto Losada, Angel Vicioso and Giampaolo Caruso set a brutal pace which caused Brambilla's gap to melt away.

 

Rolland gives it a try

Pierre Rolland (Europcar) made an attack but had no chance against the Katusha machine. They continued to press on and just before the flamme rouge, Vicioso brought Brambilla back.

 

When he swung off, the pace went down, opening the door for Nicolas Roche (Tinkoff-Saxo) to make an attack. Moreno was quick to shut it down and from there he made his strong lead-out that set up the exciting finale.