Tirreno-Adriatico: Fuglsang solos to victory on stage 5

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Jakob Fuglsang made it two in a row for Astana at Tirreno-Adriatico, winning the fifth stage. Race leader Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) came in second, with Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) third on the day.

Fuglsang jumped from a group of favourites with around 24km to go and worked his way up through the remaining riders from the day’s breakaway. He joined Davide Gaburro (Neri Sottoli) and Nico Denz (AG2R La Mondiale) and eventually dropped them, taking on the final 10 kilometres alone.

“We basically planned to try something similar to yesterday. We knew that we had a strong team and we saw yesterday that many other teams were suffering once we really put the pressure on. To wait until the final, it would probably be difficult for us to win so we tried to do the same as yesterday and today it was my turn to go from distance. Luckily it worked out,” said Fuglsang

“This was a victory for Michele Scarponi. His wife was here at the start and I saw a lot of fans out there on the last climb motivating. Already, yesterday I was thinking if I managed to win one stage here it’s for him. It’s his region and I think that Tirreno was one of his favourite races.”

Behind Fuglsang, Yates pushed on from what was left of the group of favourites with Roglic the only rider able to go with him. He finally outpaced Roglic within the final two kilometres and set off alone. At one point, Fuglsang had more than a minute’s advantage over Yates on the road but he saw his lead cut down dramatically as he hit the steep final incline. He held on tough and extended it once again as the road flattened out, beating Yates by 40 seconds, who took 16 seconds out of Roglic.

Yates’ lead over Roglic in the overall classification expanded from seven seconds to 25, while Fuglsang moved up to third in GC, dropping Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) to fourth.

How it unfolded

A large group of 13 riders dominated much of the day: Nico Denz (AG2R La Mondiale), Daniel Oss (Bora-Hansgrohe), Nathan Van Hooydonck (CCC Team), Ivan Rovny (Gazprom-RusVelo), Tom Van Asbroeck (Israel Cycling Academy), Tosh Van Der Sande (Lotto Soudal), Jorge Arcas (Movistar), Davide Gabburo and Eduardo Zardini (Neri Sottoli), Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo), Julien Simon (Cofidis), Steve Morabito (Groupama-FDJ), and Giovanni Visconti (Neri Sottoli).

They had a gap of up to nine minutes. Mitchelton-Scott, Jumbo-Visma and Astana were all active in the pursuit.

The last 70 km of the day were more roller coaster than rolling, and introduced three laps of a gruelling circuit, with two short and nasty climbs. The 19 and 20 per cent gradients took their toll on many legs.

The gap dropped but the 13-man lead group stayed together unexpectedly long. The decisive move came with 48km to go, as Zardini, Denz, Gaburro and Pedersen took off. Behind them, the group of favourites was starting to form.

With 24 km to go, and one final lap, Gabburo and Pedersen were alone in the lead, and the Yates group was breaking up. Fuglsang jumped and steadily moved his way up, catching and passing all in his way, until he was alone and could solo to the win.

Yates and Roglic also easily separated themselves from their rivals, and Yates finally took off from an exhausted Roglic, gaining precious time, which he will need as a buffer in the race-closing individual time trial.

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