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Portugal’s Afonso Eulálio seized the overall lead in the Giro d’Italia despite having victory snatched away by Spain’s Igor Arrieta in the final metres of a rain-drenched stage five on Wednesday.
The Bahrain Victorious rider joined Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) at the front near the summit of the Montagna Grande di Viggiano climb and when Arrieta took a wrong turn he looked certain to take the win. But Arrieta, banging his handlebars in anger, had other ideas and reeled in Eulálio along the finishing straight to win his first Grand Tour stage.
“I was completely empty after the hard stage but so was Eulálio,” Arrieta said. “I kept pushing and when I got his wheel I knew he couldn’t go faster than me and thought I could win the stage.”
Eulálio had looked in control but slid to the tarmac with around 7km of the 203km remaining, allowing Arrieta to catch him. He then appeared to have been gifted the stage when Arrieta went the wrong side of a junction and had to turn around. But Eulálio had nothing left in his legs on the final uphill drag and had to settle for second place, although taking the race lead was some consolation.
Arrieta had also crashed 13.5km from the end of a cold and wet day that tested the resilience of the peloton. The Italian Giulio Ciccone, who had begun the stage in the pink jersey, finished seven minutes back in the main group and slipped down to sixth overall. Eulálio now leads the general classification standings by 2min 51sec from Arrieta. Christian Scaroni is in third place, 3:34 back.
Arrieta’s victory was a welcome boost for his team who lost Adam Yates, Jay Vine and Marc Soler following a huge pile-up during the second stage in Bulgaria. “I’m really, really happy to achieve this victory, it means a lot for me, because of the crash [on stage two] and all the teammates who went home,” Arrieta said.
Thursday’s sixth stage is a 142km ride from Paestum to Napoli passing near Mount Vesuvius.
