The closing sprint on today's stage 5 at Giro d'Italia was a crazy affair. as the photos and videos below reveal. Alberto Dainese (Team DSM) was relegated from 4th to the back of the front group after he was judged to have switched Mark Cavendish (Astana), causing the British rider to crash heavily.
After clobbering Dainese's back wheel with his front wheel, Cavendish's speed sent him darting to the right where he shunted Filippo Fiorelli (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) hard into the advertising hoarding.
However, the Italian rider somehow surfed along the hoarding, full speed. And though he even got a fan's hand and phone - stretched through the barriers - into his neck, he managed to stay upright. Cavendish wasn't so lucky, with his two feet unclipping as he was thrown off his bike into the opposite side of the road.
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His fall took out riders sprinting down the left side of the road, some of whom crashed spectacularly. The trio of riders to crash on that side of the road, due to Cavendish and his bike sliding into their path were: Andrea Vendrame (AG2R Citroën Team) David Dekker (Team Arkéa Samsic) and Mirco Maestri (EOLO-Kometa).
While those three crashed just after the line - taking out a section of barrier in the process - they all placed in the top 10 on the stage, though Vendrame had to be stretchered off the finishing straight.
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Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won the day from Jonathan Milan (Bahrain-Victorious) and Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo), with Cavendish sliding across the line for 4th after the disqualification of Dainese.
Photos by Massimo Paolone
