Today, the 5th stage of Giro d’Italia, 203 km fromCosenza toMatera, was held in the south ofItaly.
Katusha Team during the whole stage tired to control the race and to protect the pink jersey of Luca Paolini. Russian team worked well and put a great effort to neutralize the daily breakaway of 5 riders, who had around 8 minutes of advantage.
After the breakaway was caught, some new attacks were in the peloton, but inMaterathe main group came together and started to prepare the massive sprint.
Everything was ok until the last corner where a crash changed everything. Finally John Degenkolb from Argos-Shimano won the stage, while Angel Vicioso from Katusha Team finished second with Paul Martens from Blanco on 3rd position.
Luca Paolini, Giampaolo Caruso and Yuriy Trofimov finished the race in the main group. Thus, Paolini saved the pink jersey for one more day. After 5 stages Katusha’s riders has 17 seconds of advantage ahead of Rigoberto Uran from Sky, second overall.
– It was a harder race than we could expect because of bad weather and high pace. Anyway, I am happy I kept the pink jersey. In the end there was a crash and I couldn’t avoid it. It’s a pity because the final was suitable to my characteristics. I am also sorry for Angel Vicioso: the team is working great for me, so they deserve a victory too, – said Luca PAOLINI.
Paolini is still the leader in point’s classification, while Katusha is the leader in team’s ranking of Giro d’Italia.
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