The sprinters still fought shoulder to shoulder at the finish of stage 5 on the wide roads near the walls that surround Lucca but were only fighting for fifth place, bragging rights and points for the cyclamen jersey.
The stage victory escaped them, with Benjamin Thomas giving Cofidis an emotional first victory of the season.
Beyond the finish line, there was a sense of disappointment and missed opportunity as the sprinters stopped to take a drink from their soigneur and then rode quietly to their team buses. The finish in Lucca was the third or six or seven stages expected to end in a sprint but the breakaway outfoxed the fast men in a day for the underdog.
Latest Videos From
"It was a missed chance," Jonathan Milan conceded, his voice full of disappointment.
The big Italian kept the cyclamen points jersey and won stage 4 to Andora, so his first week of the Corsa Rosa is a success. His Lidl-Trek teammates also tried to inspire the chase of the breakaway after the Montemagno climb with 20k to go but other teams failed to commit to the chase.
"We gave it our all as a team but we needed some help from other teams," Milan said.
"If we'd all worked together, if the other teams had helped out more, we could have caught guys in front. It was definitely a missed opportunity."
Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) finished 15th on the stage and so out of the points. He was second in Andora to Milan but was only 12th in Fossano on stage 3, so missing out in Lucca was a missed opportunity. He has yet to win in 2024.
Alpecin-Deceuninck did some late work to try to catch the break but Groves was stunned that the quartet stayed away.
"The break was just incredibly fast, and I'm guessing they got some help from the motos. But these stages happen every now and then. It was a super strong breakaway, and probably the tailwind had a lot to do with it as well," Groves told Eurosport.
Alpecin-Deceuninck clearly had a plan for the stage and hoped Groves could contest the sprint finish. They set a high pace on the gradual 15km Passo del Bracco climb after 50km, hurting rivals such as Caleb Ewan (Jayco AlUla) and Fabio Jakobsen (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL and Fernando Gaviria (Movistar).
However, they eased off after the descent during the second half of the stage, with the drop in speed helping the breakaway steal the show.
"We used a lot of energy early, I think that cost us a bit in the end, trying to bring back the break," Groves claimed.
"We had a plan and we executed the early part really well, and unfortunately got a little bit lost in the final, but the breakaway took the win."
Get unlimited access to all of our coverage of the Giro d'Italia - including breaking news and analysis reported by our journalists on the ground from every stage of the race as it happens and more. Find out more.
