Arrieta Denies Eulálio after Absurd Finale

Igor Arrieta (UAE Emirates-XRG) outsprinted Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious) for the stage win after one of the most wild and wacky finales the Giro d’Italia has seen.

Arrieta caught back to Eulálio within sight of the finishline of stage 5 on Wednesday after the two escapees traded misfortunes through a carnivalesque final 15km.

The two both separately crashed on slick technical roads, and then it looked like Arrieta made a fatal error in overcooking a bend 2km from the line.

Eulálio, gassed from the hardest stage of the race so far and bruised from his fall, slogged his way toward the line and looked in sight of a marquee stage win.

But Arrieta wasn’t done.

The 23-year-old Spaniard steamed back into Eulálio’s draft and didn’t stop, blasting to a career-topping stage win and the second in two days for UAE Emirates XRG.

It was a victory of bloody-minded resilience for Arrieta.

“I was completely empty in the last kilometers but I knew Eulálio was also the same,” Arrieta said at the line. “Both of us deserved the victory, but in the end I had it.

“When I lost Eulálio in the last two kilometers I thought it’s not possible,” Arrieta said. “But I kept pushing, I saw that he could not go faster than me, and then when I took his wheel I thought, ‘maybe I can win one stage.’”

Eulálio into pink as GC hitters play safe

Eulálio was stunned at missing the stage win, but he didn’t leave empty-handed.

He took a sizeable GC lead after the main classification rivals paused hostilities on a grueling, rain-swept stage into Potenza.

The result is a huge save for Bahrain Victorious after its leader Santiago Buitrago abandoned after the huge crash on stage 2.

Jonas Vingegaard, Giulio Pellizzari, and all their key rivals came to the line 7 minutes back, leaving breakaway riders to flood into the top of GC.

Those classification usurpers won’t be there long — a huge mountaintop finish to Blockhaus arrives on Friday.

Hills, hail, and a breakaway win at the Giro d’Italia

Stage 5 across southern Italy was a brute. The route profile didn’t do justice to a 200km stage that stacked nearly 4,000m of ascent into relentlessly rolling roads.

The 6.6km, 9.2 percent wall of Viggiano 50km from the line was touted one of the hardest of the first half of the Giro. Hours of driving rain and hail hardly made the day any easier.

Two contenders, two crashes, a missed corner, and a crazed comeback

Eulálio and Arrieta got away in a strong group of 13 early in the day. There were questions whether the GC teams would let them go on a stage designed for a classification shake up.

The two finalists didn’t wait to find out what Red Bull, Visma, and Lidl-Trek might do.

They attacked clear on the Viggiano and worked together to fend off the remnants of the break.

It looked like Eulálio and Arrieta would stay together until deep in the final after the classification teams chose to play safe in the gruesome conditions.

But the weather gods had other plans for Eulálio and Arrieta.

Arrieta crashed hard on a greasy bend 13km from the line and lost contact with Eulalio as he waited for a bike change from the UAE car.

The stage looked over as Eulálio ripped solo toward the finish. But it wasn’t.

He then also crashed 6km from the line, and Arrieta caught back.

But there was a third twist to the tale. Arrieta overcooked a corner 2km from the line, and the moment of correction allowed Eulálio to get away.

But it still wasn’t over.

Giro d’Italia stage 5 results