Eddie Dunbar managed to come through the madness at the finish of stage 5 at Giro d'Italia and even finished in the top 20 despite several crashes around him. The Jayco AlUla rider has once again made another move up the general standings, now sitting 13th overall.
Dunbar got caught behind one of the late crashes today - outside the 3km zone, meaning any time he lost would have counted. However, he managed to get back to the remains of the peloton with the help of his team, ensuring he ceded not time in the overall.
After 171km of racing, in wet conditions from Atripalda to Salerno, Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won the stage from a bunch decimated by late crashes on clearly very slippy roads. Stage 1 winner, and race favourite, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) was on the deck twice today. After avoiding a crash in the final 3km, Mark Cavendish (Astana) fell right on he finishing straight, sliding across the line for 4th on the stage.
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Dunbar was just behind that finish line chaos, finishing 20th and being credited with the same time as the winner - as so many other riders were - after the crash just inside 3km to go caused gaps through the field. Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) placed 99th, just over one minute down, but was also credited with the same time as stage winner Groves.
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The Australian put in a brilliant effort in the rain, hitting the front early in the sprint and demonstrating the staying power required to hold off his rivals. Stage 1 winner Jonathan Milan (Bahrain-Victorious) was 2nd with Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) 3rd then Cavendish sliding across the line for 4th; his fall causing others to come down.
Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) and maglia rosa Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM) were among those to come down in an earlier crash, though with just 7km to go. And while eventual stage winner Groves was also a victim of that incident, he and the others were able to return to the front section of the peloton.
Despite the crashes and the time splits - most neutralised by the 3km rule - some of the GC men did lost time today; Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) giving up 1:11 to his rivals in the overall. Race leader, Leknessund, finished in 25th and holds the maglia rosa.
Eddie Dunbar is now 2:15 down in 13th while Ben Healy is 55th at 12:27.
