Kaden Groves wins a 4th stage of the Giro in which Remco Evenepoel suffered two crashes

An eventful 4th stage of the Giro d'Italia marked by heavy rain and in which, on an a priori inconsequential day, could have changed the history of the race thanks to the two crashes suffered by the top favorite for the final victory Remco Evenepoel. Alpecin-Deceuninck's Australian Kaden Groves was the fastest in the sprint that decided the victory of this day of survival.

Remco Evenepoel saves the day's stage at the Giro d'Italia after suffering two crashes

Another rainy day in the Giro d'Italia that, for a few minutes, had our hearts in our mouths when Remco Evenepoel hit the ground. Fortunately, it seems that the crash had no major consequences and the Belgian, top favorite for the final victory, was able to continue and finish a stage that had no more history than another sprint finish.

After the first contact with the mountains yesterday, the Giro d'Italia continues to move through the southwest of the Italian peninsula approaching the Tyrrhenian coast. A 175-kilometer stage between Atripalda and Salerno with a broken first part that included two small 3rd category climbs and a flat finish that practically guaranteed a sprint resolution.

The most striking thing at the start was to see Remco Evenepoel wearing the rainbow jersey again after giving up the Maglia Rosa yesterday in favor of Andreas Leknessund who, being also old enough for the young riders' classification, is now in both jerseys. In any case, all these jerseys were tarnished under the raincoats and other warm clothing that the peloton had to unpack a couple of days ago from the closet and that today led them to almost winter conditions with a tremendous rain in the first kilometers of the day.

This meant that the breakaway was hardly fought, with four riders starting out: Thomas Champion, Samuele Zoccarato and Stefano Gandin, joined by Thibaut Pinot with the aim of taking the three points from the first of the mountain passes, close to the starting point, after which he would drop back into the peloton.

The stage was going smoothly until, passing through one of the villages, a small dog broke into the road causing a lurch to avoid it. Several riders hit the ground, among them, suddenly, the alarms went off when the television images showed Remco Evenpoel sitting on the ground without hardly moving from that position while teammates and team managers were interested in his condition.

A few minutes of tension, more caused by the Belgian's haste to regain his upright position and get back on the bike than by the seriousness of the crash. Luckily it was all just a scare and the Soudal-QuickStep rider got back on the bike to continue the stage. In the first few minutes with obvious signs of pain in the upper right leg, but as the kilometers went by he returned to pedaling without apparent difficulty, even refusing the help of the medical car that also approached to inquire about the extent of the crash.

Between this incident and the harsh weather with no signs of improvement, the peloton took it very calmly, accumulating a certain delay over the planned schedule, but without letting the breakaway go beyond a prudent distance given the few opportunities for the fast men to show off in this Giro d'Italia.

Gradually, as the pace accelerated towards the finish, the escapees fell back, except for Zoccarato who kept the pulse with the peloton alone until just over 6 kilometers from the finish, just at the same time that there was an untimely crash in the peloton that left Fernando Gaviria cut off and also affected Primoz Roglic, who was forced to change bikes with one of his teammates to avoid losing time.

In any case, there were some tense moments because Remco managed to pass in the reduced front cut in which most of the fast men entered and behind Jumbo-Visma had to put on a small exhibition to get back to the lead after the fall beyond the 3 kilometers of protection.

As there were not enough emotions, with less than 3 kilometers to go, Evenepoel went to the ground again, and luckily, apparently without consequences beyond the feeling of frustration that denoted his face.

Finally, after all the incidents, the sprint is disputed in a very small group of just over 20 units. At 200 m Kaden Groves launched with a huge strength that allowed him to impose with absolute clarity and remove the thorn of the 2 third places harvested in the second and third stage.

The party could not finish in peace because, a few meters behind, Mark Cavendish tried to come back, he skidded his wheel on the white line of the road, he managed to save it in the first instance and when trying to recover his position he hit the ground in a spectacular way in a crash that had no major consequences of pure miracle. Still sliding on the asphalt, the British rider achieved a creditable 5th position.

Stage 5 Classification

1. Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 4h30’19’’
2. Jonathan Milan (Bahrain-Victorious) 4h30’19’’
3. Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) 4h30’19’’
4. Alberto Dainese (Team DSM) 4h30’19’’
5. Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazqstan) 4h30’19’’
6. Nicolas Dalla Valle (Corratec-Selle Italia) 4h30’19’’
7. Mirco Maestri (Eolo-Kometa) 4h30’19’’
8. Filippo Fiorelli (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizane) 4h30’19’’
9. Andrea Vendrame (AG2R Citroën) 4h30’19’’
10. Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) 4h30’19’’