Landa out of Giro after crash with race official, Ewan wins stage 5 | Video | Sticky Bottle

Caleb Ewan takes another big win, this time at the end of a hairy finale to stage 5 that saw Mikel Landa crash out of the race. Ewan was delighted with his victory and celebrated long after the finish line today (Photo: Fabio Ferrari)

Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Victorious) looked like the strongest rider in the Giro yesterday on the first climbs of the 2021 race but today he is out of the event after crashing late on stage 5.

A number of men came down after one rider appeared to crash into a race official who was in the centre of the road to warn of a traffic island with just over 4km to go.

Landa came down with yesterday's stage winner, and king of the mountains, Joe Dombrowski (UAE-Team Emirate) and Francois Bidard (AG2R Citroën). However, while Dombrowski and Bidard were able to struggle back onto their bikes and finish the stage, Landa was clearly in pain.

Imagen en @Eurosport de la caída de @MikelLandaMeana #Giro pic.twitter.com/RSSPXttNRG

— Julian Palomar Sanz (@PalomarJulian) May 12, 2021

The Spanish rider, who was hopeful of winning the race overall, was taken off the road on a stretcher in a neck brace before an ambulance brought him to hospital. A little earlier in the stage Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers) also crashed and he eventually finished 13:08 down on the bunch.

Related News

Lara Gillespie attacks Dolomite stage as Giro hits high mountains

Video - Ireland's Meehan climbs with best on brutal Alpine terrain

Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) claimed a fantastic stage win in a bunch sprint at the end of 177km of racing from Modena to Cattolica. Ewan saw off Giacomo Nizzolo (Qhubeka ASSOS) and Elia Viviani (Cofidis).

Alessandro De Marchi (Israel Start-Up Nation) still leads the race overall but as Dombrowski lost 8:15 today due his crash he has dropped from 2nd overall this morning to 48th. However, he has retained his lead in the climbers' classification.

Louis Vervaeke (Alpecin-Fenix), who was 3rd overall this morning, moves up to 2nd and he is 42 seconds down on De Marchi. The Italian now looks good to maintain the race lead once the general classification men don't seek to explode the race tomorrow on the hilly stage 6.

Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Nicolas Roche (Team DSM) were both in the bunch today; Martin in 33rd and Roche in 69th. Dan Martin is 19th overall, some 2:08 down on his team mate in pink, while Roche is 58th at 12:39.

More to come.