Ackermann sprints to second Giro d’Italia stage win in heavy rain

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Pascal Ackermann won a sprint finish in the pouring rain in the Giro d’Italia fifth stage on Wednesday, claiming his second victory in this year’s race as Tom Dumoulin withdrew a day after picking up a knee injury in a crash.

The Bora-hansgrohe rider edged Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) as Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) managed to get back up to take third after he was poorly positioned as the sprint unfolded.

The final nine kilometres did not have an impact on the overall times because they were neutralised because of poor weather conditions.

Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) holds a 35sec overall race lead after the 140km stage ahead of Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) with Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) third at 39sec.

“It was scary all day under the rain,” said Ackermann. “It was a two-time sprint today. I had to brake at 250 metres to go but luckily Gaviria became the perfect lead out man for me. I had a lot of power in the end.”

Belgian Louis Vervaeke had led a long breakaway after the race started in Frascati, to the southeast of Rome, before being caught 23km from the line.

It was a particularly miserable day for Tom Dumoulin, the 2017 Giro winner. The Sunweb rider started the stage, but once he started pedalling realised he could not continue.

“For me it’s terrible,” said Dumoulin. “Months and weeks of preparation and dedication went into this Giro and in one moment it’s over.”




“It’s not how I wanted it to go of course, but it is how it is,” he continued. “I don’t know how bad the injury is, we only know that nothing is broken and it will probably just be swollen for a few days, but we have to see. For now I will just rest and see how it goes.”

Thursday’s sixth stage covers 238km from Cassino to San Giovanni Rotondo, in the Puglia region of south-western Italy, with the riders hitting the Coppa Casarinelle climb with a 4.4km gradient 15km from the finish line.

Giro d’Italia 2019 – stage 5 results (Frascati – Terracina):

1Pascal Ackermann (Bora-hansgrohe)

3:15:44

2Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates)

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3Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ)

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4Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal)

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5Matteo Moschetti (Trek-Segafredo)

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6Ryan Gibbons (Dimension Data)

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7Paolo Simion (Bardiani-CSF)

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8Jenthe Biermans (Katusha-Alpecin)

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9Giovanni Lonardi (Nippo-Vini Fantini-Faizane)

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10Manuel Belletti (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec)

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11Davide Cimolai (Israel Cycling Academy)

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12Josef Cerny (CCC)

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13Sean Bennett (EF Education First)

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14Juan Jose Lobato (Nippo-Vini Fantini-Faizane)

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15Rudiger Selig (Bora-hansgrohe)

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16Giacomo Nizzolo (Dimension Data)

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17Simone Consonni (UAE Team Emirates)

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18Jacopo Guarnieri (Groupama-FDJ)

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19Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-Quick-Step)

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20Marco Haller (Katusha-Alpecin)

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Giro d’Italia 2019 – general classification after stage 5:

1Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma)

19:35:04

2Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott)

+35”

3Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain – Merida)

+39”

4Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana)

+44”

5Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates)

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6Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe)

+49”

7Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo)

+55”

8Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Merida)

+56”

9Bob Jungels (Deceuninck-Quick-Step)

+01’02”

10Davide Formolo (Bora-hansgrohe)

+01’06”

11Victor de la Parte (CCC)

+01’10”

12Pello Bilbao (Astana)

+01’16”

13Hugh Carthy (EF Education First)

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14Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott)

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15Tony Gallopin (AG2R La Mondiale)

+01’18”

16Richard Carapaz (Movistar)

+01’21”

17Pavel Sivakov (Team Ineos)

+01’24”

18Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin)

+01’36”

19Pascal Ackermann (Bora-hansgrohe)

+01’37”

20Jan Polanc (UAE Team Emirates)

+01’39”

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