Giro d'Italia: Gaviria gets second stage win in Messina

Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) claimed his second victory of the 2017 Giro d'Italia with a powerful sprint in Messina on stage 5.

The Colombian, who wore the maglia rosa on Tuesday after winning stage 3, remained patient as Max Richeze guided him through the bunch and through the headwind in the final kilometre.

Knowing the wind would punish a long-range sprint, he followed Bora-Hansgrohe's Sam Bennett, who was the first to launch, before coming round the Irishman in the final 75 metres.

Bennett had to settle for third as Jakub Mareczko (Wilier Triestina) came storming up on the left-hand side of the road to take second place.

Andre Greipel, the winner of stage 2, finished fourth and shook Gaviria's hand beyond the finish line, knowing he would soon be handing over the purple jersey of points classification leader.

Gaviria's teammate, Bob Jungels finished safely in the peloton to retain the race lead and maglia rosa.

"I'm happy with these two victories," said Gaviria, a Grand Tour debutant who became only the second rider in the 21st century, after Damiano Cunego, to win two Giro stages while under the age of 23.

"The legs are now responding the way we wanted. This victory isn't just for me; it's for my team and my family and everyone that supported me. My family is here and it's beautiful to give them this gift. The whole team worked perfectly. We were able to take the win here, now we'll leave the islands and head to the mainland and we'll see what happens."

Highlights

How it unfolded

The crowds gathered in Pedara for the start of the fifth stage of this Giro and once again Vincenzo Nibali was mobbed by fans in his home region of Sicily. With a sprint finish in Nibali's hometown of Messina almost nailed on, there wasn't a great deal of interest in getting into the breakaway, and it was just two riders, Maciej Paterski (CCC Sprandi-Polkowice) and Evgeny Shalunov (Gazprom-Rusvelo), who went clear soon after the start, and spent the majority of the day out front.

The early portion of the parcours featured rolling terrain and a fourth-category climb at Andronico Sant-Alfio just before the 40km mark, with the duo opening up a lead of four minutes. It was Shalunov who was first to the KOM point, while Daniel Teklehaimanot (Dimension Data), who lost his blue mountains jersey to Jan Polanc on Mount Etna yesterday, struck out from the peloton to mop up the remaining point.

Quick-Step were setting the pace on the climb, taking on the responsibility that goes with the maglia rosa, while Bahrain-Merida did more than their fair share on a day of such personal significance to their leader. The break was kept on a short leash as a long descent was punctuated by another short climb, and it was down to 2:45 by the time the road flattened out for the last 60-odd kilometres.

There were two intermediate sprints in quick succession, the first positioned on the top of a short uphill kick and the second on the flat 20km later. The outcome was the same in both cases, Paterski collecting maximum points from the break and Gaviria mopping up the bulk of what was left over, despite a lengthy chase after puncturing after the first one.

“We wanted to take some points because we were down a few – we wanted to take this jersey. We managed to get the points we needed and we did it in the best way,” Gaviria said after his trip to the podium.

The gap continued to fall slowly but surely and then began to tumble inside the final 25km when a real sense of urgency appeared in the peloton. The sprint trains weren't getting truly organised, but many of the GC teams were riding hard to keep their leaders up near the front and out of trouble.

Paterski and Shalunov were caught with 15km remaining, by which point the pace in the bunch ramped up another notch, Bora-Hansgrohe making their presence felt.

As the bunch rolled into the town of Messina with 10km to go, Nibali appeared towards the front, but it was his teammate who stole the show on the first crossing of the finish line with an embarrassing blunder that he'll never be able to live down. Luca Pibernik was setting the pace for Nibali on the front when he saw a gap was appearing to the riders behind. He pressed on with his effort, regularly looking back to see the daylight increasing, and sat up and stretched his arms out in celebration as he crossed the line, despite the final lap bell ringing in his ears and an absence of photographers or soigneurs beyond the line.

Everyone else in the bunch had checked where the race really finished and pressed on for a high-speed final lap. Lotto Soudal and Quick-Step were prominent and Bora moved up in the final kilometres. The finale was complicated by a roundabout with 1.3km remaining. UAE Team Emirates took the lead but soon faded, while disorganisation struck the rest of the bunch.

Orica-Scott's Luca Mezgec took over under the flamme rouge, then Lotto in the final 700 metres – though Greipel was still some way back – and then Bora's Rudi Selig in the final 400. All the while Gaviria was moving up behind Richeze, preparing to continue the fairy tale of his first ever Grand Tour. 

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