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Giro d'Italia: Enrico Battaglin wins Stage 5, Rohan Dennis keeps overall lead

LottoNL-Jumbo rider takes third career stage win in home Grand Tour

LottoNL-Jumbo rider Enrico Battaglin, beaten into third place by Lotto Fix All’s Tim Wellens on Stage 4 of the Giro d’Italia in Caltagirone yesterday, has today taken his third career stage win in his home Grand Tour, winning Stage 5 from Agrigento to Santa Ninfa.

This afternoon, the 28-year-old outsprinted Bahrain-Merida’s Giovanni Visconti and Jose Goncalves of Katusha-Alpecin to win the hilly 153-kilometre stage.

“Today's finish was different from yesterday's,” Battaglin said. “It was a very powerful one yesterday. I was more at ease here.

“The Giro is very important for me every year,” he added. “I'm extremely happy to be a stage winner again. I want to continue the race this way.”

Race leader Rohan Dennis of BMC Racing came home safely in the bunch on a day when there was no change at the top of the general classification ahead of defending champion Tom Dumoulin of Team Sunweb and Mitchelton-Scott’s Simon Yates.

Dennis said: “It was a nice day on the bike, on quite a slow pace because of the head wind.

“I felt a bit of stress every now and then but I am glad to be in the Maglia Rosa.

“We're only on day five, that means sixteen days to go. Tomorrow will be another story with the Etna. I'm looking forward to see how I'll go up there.”

A late crash dealt a further blow to the overall hopes of Astana leader Miguel Angel Lopez, the Colombian having already lost time to his rivals after coming down in Friday’s opening time trial in Jerusalem.

Following today’s crash, which happened with 5 kilometres left, he was shepherded home by team mate Luis Leon Sanchez and lost almost three quarters of a minute to the other overall contenders.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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IanEdward | 6 years ago
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Thus giving Jonathan Edwards yet another opportunity to completely flub his Italian pronounciation. Will someone PLEASE teach him how to pronounce his Italian 'gl'??

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