Caleb Ewan sprinted to victory in stage 5 of the Giro d’Italia, outsprinting Giacomo Nizzolo on the line alongside the Adriatic resort of Cattolica with Elia Viviani in third place.
You can rewatch STAGE 5 of 2021 Giro d’Italia HERE
Alessandro De Marchi held on to the leader’s pink jersey, having taken it on Tuesday. But the day was overshadowed by late crashes involving Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers) and Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious).
Sivakov fell heavily after clipping an over-hanging tree but finished the stage on a spare bike with a cut arm.
Much worse was to follow as Landa went down in a crash also involving stage four winner Joe Dombrowski after a rider hit a race marshal signalling some road furniture some 4km from the finish.
Landa was clearly in pain and was tended to on the road, later leaving in the back of an ambulance.
De Marchi (Israel Start-Up Nation) extended his lead to 42 seconds over Louis Vervaeke (Alpecin-Fenix) with Nelson Oliveira in third place, 48 seconds adrift.
Ewan once again proved his quality in bunch sprints as he claimed a fourth career stage win on the Giro.
“The first sprint stage didn’t go good at all, so, you know, there was a lot of pressure on me and the team to do a good job today,” he said. “The goal to start with was one (stage win), so I’ve done that. I’m pretty hungry to win as much as I can, so maybe this is good confidence for the team and myself.”
Thursday’s stage is a 160km route to Ascoli Piceno including three categorised climbs.
