Philip Deignan is having a strong opening week to the Giro d'Italia and along with teammate Christian Knees he was one of the few riders who helped Lotto-Soudal bring in today's break of four riders. He would lose over three minutes on the stage winner but can be content with a solid start to the three-week race.
Ireland’s Nicolas Roche slipped one place overall to 10th after finishing 14th on today’s fifth stage of the Giro d’Italia.
The Team Sky man was caught on the wrong side of a split in the chaotic bunch sprint that decided the 233-kilometre leg from Praia A Mare to Benevento and lost four seconds in the process.
It’s by no means a bad day for Roche who is still right in contention just 37 seconds down on overnight race leader Tom Dumoulin.
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The Giant Alpecin man was another to be caught out by the split which was caused by a crash in the final few hundred metres.
He has had his margin over second place Bob Jungels (Etixx-QuickStep) trimmed to 16 seconds with yesterday’s stage winner Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) a further four seconds back.
Nicolas Roche looks back to see if the group is intact at the finish of today's Giro stage.
A break of four riders featuring Daniel Oss (BMC), Amets Txurruka (Orica-GreenEdge), Pavel Brutt (Tinkoff) and Alexander Foliforov (Gazprom-RusVelo) escaped after the day’s only categorised climb after 35 kilometres and they built a maximum advantage of seven minutes.
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However, thanks to the work of Greipel’s team - and a few Team Sky men, they were reeled back in inside the final 20 kilometres, which paved the way for the sprint.
“Chapeau to my teammates today,” Greipel said immediately after.
“It was hard for them to chase down the break but they continued to work for me even if the other teams didn’t help us. Jurgen Roelandts did an amazing job from five kilometres to the final kilometre to keep me up there.
“Everybody slowed with about 400 metres to go and I thought if I see a gap then I’ll go through it. I saw the gap and I went through it and I gave everything I had in my legs.”
Tom Dumoulin is still in the race leader’s pink jersey and is 16 seconds clear of Bob Jungels (Etixx-QuickStep) with yesterday's stage winner Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) a further four seconds further back.
Tomorrow’s stage is the most decisive of the race so far and takes the riders 157 kilometres from Ponte to the first summit finish of Roccraso.
There’s an early categorised climb to Torrecuso which should ensure a lively start and another, longer haul to the summit of the Bocca di Selva after 63 kilometres.
It’s up and down to the finish thereafter but a 20-kilometre climb to the finish will see a considerable shake-up in the general classification.
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