The Giro d'Italia almost descended into farce in the finale on stage 5, as two breakaway riders emerged to fight it out but took turns to throw it away.
Two crashes and one wrong turn later, we had a winner in one of the most ridiculous conclusions we've seen to a Grand Tour stage in recent memory.
Igor Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates) made two mistakes to the one of Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious), but he somehow emerged as the stage winner, even if Eulálio had the consolation of taking the pink jersey.
The first crash
The drama began 13.5km from the line on a rain-soaked stage that saw the breakaway stay away from the peloton and that duo slip clear to contest stage honours between them.
Arrieta was leading down a descent and going at such a rate that he had gapped Eulálio, when he suddenly slid out and crashed. He'd just come through a right-hand bend that immediately swung back into a left-hand hairpin, and his bike slid out from underneath him.
He fumbled with his chain for a while before finally getting a new bike from his team car. When he got going again, he was 30 seconds down with just over 10km to go, and it looked like the stage win had evaporated away.
Video embedded below
La caída que complica severamente las opciones de Igor Arrieta por el triunfo de etapa en Potenza.#Giroditalia pic.twitter.com/DJM09qL6gLMay 13, 2026
The second crash
However, with 6.5km to go, Eulálio did almost exactly the same thing. Leading the way, he was negotiating a gentle left-hand downhill bend when his front wheel gave way on the slippery surface. He fell heavily on his left side and went sliding a long way until being stopped by a guardrail.
Like Arrieta, Eulálio fumbled with his dropped chain before quickly getting a new bike from his team car. They grappled over who was setting it down on the road before he got back underway, shaking his left arm out in the process.
Soon after, Arrieta, seeing the Bahrain Victorious team car and a stray bidon on the road, came up to him, and a two-up sprint was back on the cards.
¡Caída de Eulálio cuando acariciaba la etapa y la Maglia Rosa!Igor Arrieta se echa encima del portugués y vuelve a tener todas las opciones.#Giroditalia pic.twitter.com/A1G3msQ00XMay 13, 2026
The wrong turn
And yet, there was even more drama when, with just over 2km to go, Arrieta took a wrong turn.
Eulálio was leading through a gentle right-hand bend that tightened as the road forked. He snuck onto the right road, but Arrieta, unable to correct his line, went sailing wide and into the tape that was cordoning off the wrong road.
Once again, it looked like it was stage over. And it could have been even worse as, as if we needed another injection of drama, Arrieta's rear wheel took an almighty skid under the pressure he was applying out of the saddle on a small rise. He kept it upright, and set about chasing what seemed like another lost cause.
Ciclismo. No te lo acabas nunca.En un final absolutamente disparatado, Igor Arrieta se equivoca en un desvío a 2 km de meta y se cómo se le escabulle el triunfo en Potenza.#Giroditalia pic.twitter.com/MGzS25qwdUMay 13, 2026
The last-gap turnaround
What happened next was extraordinary. Arrieta clawed back the gap to Eulálio all the way to the line, reeling him in bit by bit in the home straight in a nail-biting and scarcely-believable finale.
He made the pass in the final 100 metres, going clear to take one of the most remarkable stage wins we've seen in a long time.
"I didn't think it was lost, I need to try to the end of the hard stage.. You never know. I was completely empty in the last kilometres, but I knew Eulálio was the same," said Arrieta after the stage.
"When I lose Eulálio in the last 2km, I was like 'Not possible', but I keep pushing. I said he cannot go faster than me, but when I took his wheel, it was like 'Fuck, maybe I can win the stage'."
🥹🏆 EL DIOS DEL CICLISMO ELIGE A IGOR ARRIETA.El joven navarro de UAE Team Emirates supera a Afonso Eulálio en una llegada de locos en Potenza y logra su mejor victoria como profesional.#Giroditalia pic.twitter.com/LxX5n87JS2May 13, 2026
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