Benjamin Thomas triumphed from the break on stage five of the Giro d'Italia, as a quartet of escapees managed to outfox the chasing peloton, who were hoping for a sprint finish.
The Frenchman hailed a "perfect" day as he took Cofidis' first victory of the season in the process, as he out-sprinted Michael Valgren (EF Education-EasyPost), Andrea Pietrobon (Polti Kometa) and Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ). Behind, Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) won the sprint for fifth, three seconds adrift of the four up front.
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) remains in the race lead and therefore in the pink jersey.
Thomas said he had been inspired by his near miss in the 2022 Tour de France, when he was caught within 500m of the line in Carcassonne after holding the peloton off alone for 65km.
“I thought of Carcassonne in the last kilometre, and I thought maybe today is my day," he said. "Nobody bet on the attackers today, and the final was really critical... Everything is perfect today.
"Every pull was full gas," he said.
“I knew all the roads at the final because I train there sometimes," Thomas added. "It was helping me to know that the final would help us, with the cobbles and the corners. It’s a nice thing to win in Italy.”
Much of the talk at the start of this fifth stage of the Giro d'Italia was of another sprint finish, with ciclamino jersey Milan and his chief sprint rival Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) appearing on TV talking about how the finish looked compared to yesterday.
There was, of course, the niggling climb to Montemagno that would have to be dispatched first – but at 3km long and 22km remaining till the finish, surely that would be a formality.
Or would it?
The sprinters hadn't counted on the four-man break that took off with 77km remaining, just after the first intermediate sprint.
It was quickly given a minute and a half by a bunch that was, of course, blissfully ignorant as to how this was going to play out.
The gap was still nearly a minute going over the top of that final climb, and when the peloton engaged the afterburners, so did the breakaway. Try as they might, the sprinter's teams could only make very slow inroads into the gap, and there were still 30sec to make up with three kilometres to go – when Pietrobon began missing turns.
Predictably enough, the Italian attacked hard in the final kilometre and gained what looked like an unassailable gap. He tired quickly though, with fellow escapees Thomas and Valgren shooting past him as they sprinted for the win. Final breakaway man Paleni finished three seconds back.
How it happened
The riders embarked on the 178km trek southwards along the coast from Genoa to Lucca a touch late after the team buses encountered heavy traffic.
On what was a beautiful blue-sky day, with the sea at their sides, an early break of four quickly established itself.
Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ), Simon Geshke (Cofidis), Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) and Mattia Bais (Polti-Kometa) worked smoothly together at the front for more than 60km.
It was clear the peloton wanted to keep an eye on them though; they were never given more than around two minutes, and were eventually caught soon after cresting the Passo del Bracco – the first of two classified climbs today.
The peloton looked relaxed as it cruised on a gentle downhill trajectory towards a trio of bonus sprints (the middle one the Intergiro sprint).
The sprinters only got to contest maximum points at the first of these though (Alpecin-Deceuninck's Kaden Groves won), because shortly afterwards the second four-man break of the day went clear of the bunch – and this time it stuck.
Results
Giro d'Italia 2024, stage five: Genoa > Lucca (178km)
1. Benjamin Thomas (Fra) Cofidis, in 3:59:59
2. Michael Valgren (Den) EF Education-EasyPost
3. Andrea Pietrobon (Ita) Polti-Kometa, both at same time
4. Enzo Paleni (Fra) Groupama-FDJ, +3sec
5. Jonathan Milan (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +11sec
6. Caleb Ewan (Aus) Jayco-AlUla
7. Phil Bauhaus (Ger) Bahrain Victorious
8. Tim Merlier (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step
9. Olaf Kooij (Ned) Visma-Lease A Bike
10. Madis Mihkels (Est) Intermarché-Wanty, all at same time
General Classification after stage five
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, in 19:19:15
2. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, +46s
3. Daniel Felipe Martínez (Col) Bora-Hansgrohe, +47s
4. Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bel) Visma-Lease a Bike, +55s
5. Einer Rubio (Col) Movistar, +56s
6. Lorenzo Fortunato (Ita) Astana Qazaqstan, +1:07
7. Juan Pedro López (Esp) Lidl-Trek, +1:11
8. Jan Hirt (Cze) Soudal Quick-Step, +1:13
9. Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana Qazaqstan, +1:26
10. Ben O’Connor (Aus) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, at same time
