Benjamin Thomas, consolidating the breakaway, leaves the Giro sprinters with a look of circumstance

It seemed at first a new day to be decided in the sprint among the fast men of the race but, as sometimes happens, the breakaway managed to reach a successful conclusion with Frenchman Benjamin Thomas giving the victory to Team Cofidis in this 5th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2024.

The breakaway triumphs in the 5th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2024

The Giro d'Italia 2024 continues to burn stages on a new transitional day in terms of the general classification, with a stage of 178 kilometers between Genova and Luca. A route with hardly any difficulties beyond a third category climb in the first third of the stage and a small bump of 4th category in the final stretch, 20 kilometers from the finish.

The day was marked by tranquility with a script that seemed typical of this type of stage: an allowed breakaway from the beginning, formed by four units in the figure of Simon Geschke, Manuele Tarozzi, Lewis Askey, and Mattia Bais. However, they would not go much further than the Passo del Bracco, the first of the day's climbs. And, as usually happens in these situations when the breakaway is neutralized too soon, a new attempt would soon take place.

This time it was Michael Valgren, Benjamin Thomas, Enzo Paleni, and Andrea Pietrobon who put some distance, with the advantage of being fresher than if they had attacked from the beginning. In an excess of confidence, the sprint teams let them go and, as also usually happens in these situations, alarms went off when, after overcoming Montemagno, the second of the day's difficulties, the time gaps were barely closing.

The escapees saw clearly when 5 kilometers from the finish they maintained a 40-second lead and the speed, on clearly favorable terrain, remained around 60 km/h, a pace at which it is very difficult to cut every second. In fact, those last kilometers passed in just a blink of an eye with the escapees knowing that the victory would be among them.

Already in the last kilometer, the Italian from Polti-Kometa Andrea Pietrobon tried to surprise, the weakest of the four at the front and who had been saving energy for several kilometers to play this, his only card. And it seemed like it could work out for him until he was caught by his breakaway companions just 100 meters from the finish line, with the Frenchman from Cofidis Benjamin Thomas winning the sprint among the escapees, in what is his first victory in a grand tour.

Just a few seconds later, the peloton crossed the finish line, led by a dejected Jonathan Milan who had to settle for adding some juicy points towards the classification of the maglia ciclamino that he has been wearing since his victory in yesterday's stage. Meanwhile, the favorites remained sheltered awaiting tomorrow's stage in Tuscany where the peloton will have to overcome a couple of sterrato sections that could cause some differences.

Stage 5 Classification

1. Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis) 3h59'59''
2. Michael Valgren (EF Education-EasyPost) +00''
3. Andrea Pietrobon (Polti-Kometa) +00''
4. Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ) +03''
5. Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) +11''
6. Caleb Ewan (Jayco-AlUla) +11''
7. Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorious) +11''
8. Tim Merlier (Souda-QuickStep) +11''
9. Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) +11''
10. Madis Mihkels (Intermarché-Wanty) +11''

General Classification

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 19h19'15''
2. Geraint Thomas (INEOS-Grenadiers) 46''
3. Daniel Felipe Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe) +47''
4. Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma-Lease a Bike) +55''
5. Einer Rubio (Movistar Team) +56''
6. Lorenzo Fortunato (Astana) +01'07''
7. Juan Pedro López (Lidl-Trek) +01'11''
8. Jan Hirt (Soudal-QuickStep) +01'13''
9. Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) +01'26''
10. Esteban Chaves (EF Education-EasyPost) +01'26''