Darren Rafferty (Hagens Berman Axeon) may have had a very tough day on the Baby Giro yesterday - when 3rd on the Stelvio summit finish - but that did not stop the Irish 19-year-old going on the hunt for more on today's fifth stage.
He was active at the front again - once more among the very best on the climbs - and took a time bonus at an intermediate sprint as well as points in the king of the mountains classification. Indeed, he is now 2nd in the climbers' classification and is within four points of taking that leader's jersey, to add to the combined classification jersey he already holds.
The one, very minor, downside for Rafferty today was that the only man ahead of him in the general classification, race leader Johannes Staune-Mittet (Jumbo-Visma Development Team), took a second on him at the intermediate sprint.
Advertisement
Lars Craps (Soudal-Quick-Step Devo Team) won that sprint, taking a three-second bonus, with Staune-Mittet taking two seconds and Rafferty one second for 3rd. The Irish rider also took 2nd place across the top of the first climb of the day, the Passo Tre Termini - an 8.2km ascent averaging 5.8 per cent gradient.
Related News
The four points Rafferty scored on that climb bring him one place higher in the classification, to 2nd, and he is now just four points off the king of the mountains leader, Staune-Mittet.
At the end of today's 159km stage, from Cesano Maderno to Manerba del Garda, there were also some splits at the front of the remains of the bunch, which worked in Rafferty's slight advantage over some of the others in the top 10 overall.
The stage win was fought out by two breakaway men who just about survived out front. British rider Lukas Nerurkar extended Trinity Racing's fantastic run of victories this year. He out-sprinted Norway's Trym Brennsæter (Equipe Continentale Groupama-FDJ) to the fight to 1st and 2nd.
They were just 11 seconds up on the bunch, with the sprint for 3rd won by Francesco Busatto (Circus-ReUz-Technord). He was at the head of eight riders who all finished on the same time as the field split on the incline to the finish. Some four seconds behind those eight, another group of five was credited with the same time - 15 seconds down on the winner.
After them came 31 riders all on the same time; some 17 seconds down on the stage winner. Most of the main riders were in that group, including the top three overall; Staune-Mittet, Rafferty and Alexy Faure Prost (Circus-ReUz-Technord).
Some of the other riders in the top 10 were in the next group, 10 seconds down on the Rafferty-Staune Mittet group. However, while some of those riders now have 10 extra seconds to make up, there were no major changes at the top with three stages remaining - including the tough stage 7, with a summit finish.
Staune Mittet retains the leader's maglia rosa, and it will be hard to shift him and his team. He leads 2nd placed Rafferty by 19 seconds, with Faure Prost 3rd at 39 seconds. Alessio Martinelli (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) is 4th at 1:19, meaning Rafferty now has exactly a one minute advantage on the man who is closest to the podium placings; a great position to be in.
