Remco Evenepoel was forced into a late chase on stage 5 at Tirreno-Adriatico today when he led the favourites the wrong way while they were on the attack. Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) was away with race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) at the time.
They had broken clear of the remains of the peloton and were chasing the breakaway after Evenepoel attacked with 8km to go going over the top of small and steep climb on the 155km stage into Fermo.
When Pogačar and Vingegaard went with him and they pulled clear it looked like they had a chance of catching the breakaway, even though their advantage was about one minute at the time.
With 6km to go the three-man favourites' group was flying downhill and when they came to a sharp turn right Evenepoel was leading and did not see the turn. He went straight ahead, bringing Pogačar and Vingegaard with him. However, both Vingegaard and Pogačar spotted the mistake immediately and were able to slow down and get back on course straight away.
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Evenepoel took a little longer to realise his error and by the time he doubled back on himself and made the turn, uphill, he had a fight on his hands to get back into what was left of the peloton. He eventually made it with the help of team mate Davide Ballerini.
Gianluca Brambilla (Trek-Segafredo) was in the original breakaway and had just been caught by the three GC men when they overshot the turn. However, while the Italian was with them, he spotted the right turn and stayed on course, as did the group just seconds behind.
Evenepoel spoke to reporters after the stage and blamed the race marshals for not waving him more clearly into the right so he could take the turn properly.
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“I was joined only by Pogačar and Vingegaard, and we went full gas on the descent and had a good gap," he said. "But then there was almost nothing and no one to show us that we should go right. So instead of this, we continued to ride straight ahead and our promising move ended there."
Four men survived from the breakaway after a final 30km punctuated by short and steep climbs and lots of attacking up front. However, they may have been caught by the three GC men had they not gone the wrong way. One of the escapees, Warren Barguil (Arkéa Samsic), put in a brilliant final attack to take a solo victory. He made his decisive move with about 3km to go, including a final ramp with sections of 20 per cent.
Barguil took the win by 10 seconds from Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Fenix). The last of the two breakaway survivors, Simone Velasco (Astana Qazaqstan) and Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), took 3rd and 4th at 14 and 15 seconds respectively.
Then came Richie Porte in 5th; the Ineos Grenadiers man attacking the peloton in the finale and gaining a couple of seconds on them. The Australian, showing good form in his final season, finished 26 seconds down on the stage winner. He was two seconds up on the remains of the bunch, which was led home by Pogačar from Vingegaard, Enric Mas (Movistar) and Evenepoel.
