Signore, signori, welcome to the first mountain stage - including mountain top finish - of the 2020 Giro d'Italia! After two exciting hilly stages in a row, today's profile looks much more regular, containing only two big climbs and not many hills - but beware, we do again have more than 2,500 meters of elevation gain ahead!
The stage kicks off in yesterday's arrival location, La Spezia, meaning the riders didn't have to travel after the race and should be well recovered for what awaits them now!
For the first time, we won't have both start and finish lines at the seaside - which isn't surprising, given the mountain top finish. The riders will now really enter the Apennines, with a first climb up to Foce Carpinelli to warm up the legs. The riders will reach the top of this 3rd category mountain after 57.8km, having gained already more than 800m in altitude.
The downhill will however be tricky, with some ups and downs and quite some turns - so the likes of Anacona better watch out today! After another short yet uncategorized hill up to Barga, the riders will fight for points in Ghivizzano after 107.2km, before reaching the lowest point between the two mountains in Fornoli five kilometers later.
From there, it's only uphill for the rest of the stage, but the first 25 kilometers until La Lima won't be that steep. But then, the race will really start, with the climb up to Abetone kicking off! It's a category 2 climb - and on top of it, we'll know today's winner!
Besides already having hosted the Giro d'Italia several times, Abetone is mainly known for its ski resort. In summer, it's a popular base for mountain hikers, meaning the village is mostly dependent on touristic activity all year long.
One thing is sure: today's winner won't be a tourist, but a great climber - else you've got no chance of winning up here! Will it be a breakaway rider for the third time in a row? One of the GC contenders? Can the Italians keep up their winning streak and extend it to four in a row? And can Bizkarra become this year's first rider to defend the Maglia Rosa?
We'll find out! Before joining the riders in La Spezia with our TV cameras, let's take a look at the bookmakers' favorites for today's fifth stage: Without any surprise, they have the peloton's best climber Taaramäe on top, followed by yesterday's big loser Spilak. Will the Slovene start his race to catch up here? The third rider getting three stars is Kritskiy, being the third best climber in the pack.
Then, the race gets much more open; two stars go to Reis, Barguil and Haig, while Amador, Shikai, Schleck and Bongiorno get one star. No mention of Carapaz, Chiarello or Brenes - but we definitely have those on the list as well, just like the duo of Anacona and Ji, looking to redeem themselves as well!
But now, let's jump right to the start line, as the riders are getting ready for what is promising to be yet another beautiful day of cycling!
It takes six kilometers and a first bump until we see the first attack. It's Munoz accompanied by former Maglia Rosa Malecki!
Barthe seems to want more than just a 3rd place as he got yesterday, attacking again! He's chasing down teammate Nych and Maglia Azzurra per pro. Budenieks.
As always, there are some who had planned to attack but missed the move, so they're trying to defeat these first couple of escapees. We can spot Van Zandbeek, yesterday's stage winner Conti and the duo Gamper - Covi up front.
Harper is next to attack - and this time, Fedeli has been attentive and joins the Australian. Boom is trying to catch up with this duo.
But it isn't over yet, as we get further attempts by Hofstede, Mager and Sendeku. 20 kilometers are already covered!
Now it seems as if all teams were happy, given that we don't get any more attacks. The teams of the GC favorites have taken command, sharing the workload among them. We have Zhao, Granjel Cabrera, Kanter, Castrillo, Dillier, Van Winden, Yatsevich and Nizzolo - that's a pretty good usage for sprinters and time trialists, as they probably won't be very helpful later in the stage.
Some riders still have different ideas, though, with Spanopoulos, Affonso and Bugge attempting to break free!
Zhao and Granjel Cabrera are having none of it, though - 11 seems to be the maximum number of escapees they will allow today.
The big merger up front happens after 30 kilometers, where the group of eleven is now complete. They are already three minutes ahead, and unless someone makes a very bold move from the pack, we can call this our Breakaway of the Day!
Mager is likely the most complete rider up front, being among the best climbers and clearly the strongest puncheur. However, his skills on the longer uphills are matched by Munoz and Sendeku, who won't be afraid of the flatter sections, either.
Harper and KoM jersey wearer Budenieks are pretty much as good uphill, with the latter having the best resistance.
Matching his resistance is the group's best sprinter, Malecki - which he already showed by beating the Latvian in the sprint two days ago. The Pole is actually strong on any terrain and hence doesn't have a notable weakness.
As the two former riders, Barthe already has a successful breakaway behind him - he got the 3rd place yesterday, and the Frenchman is a good allrounder as well.
Hofstede, Nych and Boom are the weaker climbers, with the Russian at least being clearly the strongest on the flat. Maybe he chose the wrong stage for his attack, though...
And then, there is Fedeli, with a great record of four consecutive breakaway appearances! Unfortunately for him, that doesn't change the fact that he's once again the weakest rider up front... But maybe he has already learnt something from his previous experiences?
In terms of GC, the situation is pretty clear. Malecki is currently sitting in 2nd, only 17" behind Bizkarra - and given his advantage on most other riders (e.g. 3'22" on Barthe and even more on all serious GC contenders), his goal will likely be to claim back the GC lead by getting a head start into the final climb!
But for now, let's actually tackle the first hill. It's a pretty long uphill section, almost 13 kilometers long - but less than 5% steep on average. Something more for the tempo riders than for actual climbers.
Here is the start of the hill for the breakaway. Budenieks will try to claim back the lead in the KoM standings on top - he needs two points (or 3rd place) to catch up with Bizkarra. Let's see if it works out - or if Malecki rather catches up with the Latvian.
The peloton reaches this point 6'38" later than the breakaway! Yatsevich and Appollonio would actually be able to ride pretty high speed on the flat, but they didn't - and now that the road goes up, there should be other types of riders coming to the front.
It was a steady and uneventful climb, with the breakaway constantly riding faster than the pack, trying to squeeze out every second of advantage they can get!
With one kilometer left to the top, Budenieks accelerates, trying to be first over the line!
It almost worked out - but not quite. Malecki picks up the maximum points, ahead of Budenieks and Mager (although it looked like Fedeli actually crossed the line ahead of the German). Which gives us the following:
This means that Budenieks indeed claims back the lead from Bizkarra, who trails by two points. Malecki is four points down. Only these three plus Gabburo at 10 points can theoretically get the Maglia Azzurra tonight, with 10 points still on offer at the finish line!
Almost ten minutes later - 9'24" to be precise - the pack, led by sprinter Granjel Cabrera, reaches the top as well. With 88km remaining for the breakaway, the peloton should make good use of the long downhill section to gain back some time, if they are to fight for the stage win!
Let's make a big jump ahead to the intermediate sprint, as nothing happens until there. Malecki is the only one interested in these points - which propel him up to 2nd in these standings:
Malecki now trails Bizkarra by 9 points, having left behind Demare by one and Appollonio by two points. With today's stage ending with a mountain top finish, only 20 points are available for the stage winner, by the way!
Festina have again taken control in the pack, chasing with 4 riders: Kastrantas, Van Niekerk, Spanopoulos and Nizzolo.
However, it's not really correct to speak about "chasing", as the pack's deficit has gone up to 13'12"! With just 37 kilometers to go, it's really questionable if they can still catch the breakaway - despite the final climb surely favoring the pack.
The picture has slightly changed as the bunch rides up the valley leading to that last climb, as Volvo have now taken the lead. Van Zandbeek, Haugard, Kosic and Appollonio are pulling - with the sprinter still able to work, this definitely means the stage has been anything but hard so far.
20 kilometers to go for the escapees, about 7km to the start of the final climb. With their advantage still above 13 minutes, they can take it easy as well now, knowing they will be fighting for the stage win!
Moreover, Malecki's chances of re-claiming pink are incredibly high, as Barthe would need to gain more than 3 minutes on the Pole to overtake him! Which is unlikely, given the two are pretty much equivalent climbers!
And here's the profile of that climb. 12.5km long, but only 6.5% average gradients - nothing any of those breakaway riders will be really afraid of. The steepest sections are on the first 5 kilometers - so if anyone wants to try an early attack, it would probably need to be there!
Here they go! As soon as the climb is on, Nych and Boom, the weakest climbers, try a long-range move - let's see where it leads!
Munoz joins these two without much hesitation - as he's among the strongest climbers, this could actually be a dangerous attack! What are the others going to do?
For the moment, they're just riding a steady pace, led by Budenieks (hidden by the leaves). There are still 10 kilometers to go, hence it would be pointless to dig deep already now!
That's pretty unfortunate... Just as the bunch has finally woken up a bit, Reus needs to change a wheel, hence losing contact with 17.5km to go. Will we have a different red lantern than Suryadi for once?
Nych couldn't keep up with Munoz and Boom anymore and is caught by Harper.
However, Hofstede seems to be preparing a counter-attack!
The Dutchman indeed catches up with the leading duo, while Harper still doesn't lose his calm and just rides on. 8.5 kilometers remaining!
The pack has finally reached the first slopes of the climb as well. They're still more than 13 minutes behind - so they'd need to make up more than one minute per kilometer to catch the escapees! No way... Not on such an easy climb, and with the breakaway seemingly not too tired yet.
But maybe Spilak will still try to gain a few seconds back? Or will someone else try to get a slight advantage on the rest? We'll see!
At least, with Girdlestone now pacing up front, the speed has clearly increased. Spilak is well positioned today, as are all other GC contenders.
But the Maglia Rosa is already in the last 30 positions of the pack! With Bizkarra actually being a good climber, he must surely feel his sore legs from yesterday's breakaway?
Demare is just ahead of him, and Izagirre and Bernal are even behind! Puncheur McCarthy doesn't look great, either. Let's see how this unfolds...
Meanwhile, Munoz has decided it's time to go all alone, leaving Hofstede and Boom behind!
However, the advantage on the eight others is still not decisive, let's see if they can come back!
At least the attempt of Boom and Hofstede has now been shut down by Sendeku. Munoz is 35" ahead, with five kilometers to go!
Now we finally get some action from the peloton! Bongiorno might still be angry that yesterday's attack was finally nullified by the judges, and so he just tries again!
Novikov and Girdlestone are the first chasers, let's see if that is enough to stop the Italian!
Up front, the chasers continue riding their steady pace - and they're clearly closing in on Munoz again! Just a few seconds left for the Colombian!
Bongiorno hasn't relented yet, still riding some meters ahead of the bunch! Novikov is still leading the chase, while the weakest riders are starting to drop off the pack! 8 kilometers remaining for the peloton.
Munoz' move comes to an end, as Mager catches him with just 2.5 kilometers to the line! Will we see another attack? Or will everyone wait to challenge the strongest sprinter Malecki on the final meters?
What can be said for sure now - bar any mechanical problem or a complete breakdown - is that the Pole will indeed re-claim the race lead after just one day!
Further back, Bongiorno has finally abandoned his move, seeing that he can't really get a gap. The climb is just too easy, so even the helpers can still keep the big climbers at bay.
Two kilometers left, with Mager still leading the breakaway. No-one has tried an attack - are they empty, or is everyone convinced to be the strongest in the sprint?
It's Bongiorno again! The Italian wants this gap, and so he accelerates one more time! Girdlestone is still there to chase him, though - and later, it's Sivakov and Aranburu who can take over. 6 kilometers to go for the bunch!
Fiamma Rossa! Budenieks leads the escapees onto the final 1,000 meters, followed by Malecki, Sendeku, Barthe and Harper!
With 5 kilometers to go, Bongiorno has again been caught - and now it's Chiarello who attempts to break free! Spilak has sent Talansky up front to lead the chase now!
700m to go, and Malecki has taken the lead. He hasn't launched the sprint yet, though, everyone is waiting and watching and waiting and watching...
Which is definitely not the case for Chiarello, who's rather pushing and riding and pushing and riding! But so is Sivakov, followed by Haig and Talansky!
With 500 meters remaining, Malecki is now accelerating, trying to get the win from the leading position! Sendeku has taken his wheel and has got a huge chance to get a GT stage win, too!
Harper, Budenieks and Mager follow, whereas the others seem to have some struggles to keep up!
Only 300m to go, and Malecki now has even a small gap on the rest! Sendeku holds on to 2nd, while Budenieks, Harper and Mager are fighting for 3rd. Barthe is closing in as well, still fighting for the second stage podium in a row!
200 meters to go, and while Malecki looks like today's clear winner, Sendeku has a hard time fending off Budenieks and Harper! The Latvian actually needs the 2nd place, if he wants to secure the exclusive KoM lead!
This is it! After having taken 2nd two days ago, Kamil Malecki gets the biggest win of his career today, triumphing here in Abetone! And he not only gets the stage win, no - he will at least claim three jerseys, maybe even all four of them!
This will be decided as the next riders cross the line in the fight for 2nd!
Getachew Sendeku holds on to this 2nd place, claiming a GT stage podium for Ethiopia! Although he narrowly misses out on the win, it's still a huge result for him!
Kristaps Budenieks then claims 3rd - which makes him the ex-aequo KoM leader with Malecki! Given that the latter will wear pink tomorrow, the Latvian will again have the Maglia Azzurra on his shoulders!
Chris Harper - who was part of yesterday's breakaway as well, but was dropped and caught by the pack early on - just misses out on the stage podium, getting 4th place, ahead of Christian Mager and Cyril Barthe, who gets a Top 6 finish for the second day in a row!
Alessandro Fedeli can be proud as well, as it's the first time in four tries that he actually finishes inside the winning breakaway, taking 7th place. Daniel Munoz in 8th is the last rider to be listed with the same time as the winner.
Lennard Hofstede finishes 9th, 24" behind, whereas Artem Nych rounds of the Top 10, finishing 33" back just as Lars Boom in 11th.
And now, let's wait for the pack - or for a solo attacker?
It actually looks pretty good for Chiarello, as Sivakov has given up on the chase. Iino isn't pushing hard, either, and Haig doesn't seem to be really worried as well.
Well, if no-one else really wants to chase, it's Taaramäe himself who closes that gap and brings Chiarello back.
All the GC favorites are still there, but some are starting to look tired, despite the rather easy day! But it's clear, if Taaramäe goes full throttle, it's hard to not suffer somehow!
As the front of the pack - i.e. all the GC contenders - are below the red kite, Maglia Rosa Bizkarra has to let go. He'll lose that jersey anyway, but he surely hoped to finish among the strongest!
He isn't the only one in difficulties, though; a little further up the road, Kennaugh has a small gap as well, with the likes of Sosnitskiy, Roman, Vakoc, Izagirre, Wirtgen or Velits in that group, too.
Even further back are Costagli - again - and strong puncheurs as Demare, Bystrom or McCarthy. No serious GC contenders, though.
Spilak has taken the lead with 500m to go - he should definitely be the strongest from such a constellation. Taaramäe, Barguil, ever-aggressive Bongiorno, Kritskiy, Haig, Schleck and Shikai are next.
Meanwhile, some others are clearly struggling and will have to hope for the judges' mercy to not get a time gap! We can see Kennaugh, who has caught up again with Brenes, then Faglum Karlsson, Salinas, Amador, Ji, Carapaz, Aru, Reis, Karnulin, Kirsch, Nesset, Valls, Anacona, Arndt, Talansky and Chiarello.
Simon Spilak easily wins the sprint from this group, taking 12th place, 9'01" behind Malecki. Rein Taaramäe is 13th, ahead of Jack Haig, Warren Barguil, Timofey Kritskiy, Francesco Bongiorno and Chen Shikai. This group of 7 all get the same time.
Sigurd Nesset outpsrints a completely empty Andy Schleck for 20th; these two get a 20" gap on Spilak.
Talansky then leads home the next group of 13, including Chiarello, Arndt, Aru, Anacona, Valls, Karnulin, Kirsch, Reis, Carapaz, Ji, Salinas and Amador. They are 8" behind Schleck.
With a gap of already 1'09" behind Spilak, we have Kennaugh, Faglum Karlsson and Brenes.
Today's stage result gives us a truly surprising GC, with many, many breakaway riders up front and Haig being the first "real" GC contender in 10th position only. But we'll take a look at that later.
For now, let's lean back and enjoy the one-man-show by...
... Kamil Malecki! After his strong 2nd place in Sestri Levante two days ago, he was simply unbeatable today, sprinting away from the front!
Getachew Sendeku takes home a great 2nd place - although he must be disappointed of missing out on the win so closely. But he made nothing wrong, he'll just have to admit that Malecki was clearly stronger.
Also in the winning breakaway two days ago, but finishing 4th out of 4 back then, Kristaps Budenieks takes one step up today, meaning he claims 3rd place! Another great performance by the Latvian as well!
All of the breakaway riders finished the race far ahead of the peloton, but these three were the strongest (or smartest) of the day. Congratulations!
And here he is again: Kamil Malecki! Two days ago, he took the pink jersey after his 2nd place, just to lose it by 17 seconds yesterday after a great fight, finishing inside the peloton with all the GC contenders.
And today, he didn't have any real competition for the Maglia Rosa, now leading the GC by 3'48" over Cyril Barthe!
But what gives him a truly great chance to defend that jersey not only tomorrow, but maybe even for a few more days, is the fact that Kristaps Budenieks in 3rd place is already 9'10" back! Yes, 9'10"!
We then have many more of today's breakaway riders all the way down to 9th. Only in 10th position we find a name we'd expect to be inside these Top 10 by the end of the race as well: Jack Haig, who is 12'50" back!
With so many breakaway riders currently in the mix, let's try to get an overview of the strongest competitors in comparison with Haig:
10.
Jack Haig
+ 12'50"
+ 0"
12.
Timofey Kritskiy
+ 12'56"
+ 6"
13.
Warren Barguil
+ 13'08"
+ 18"
14.
Rein Taaramäe
+ 13'12"
+ 22"
15.
Rafael Reis
+ 13'18"
+ 28"
16.
Chen Shikai
+ 13'25"
+ 35"
17.
Andrew Talansky
+ 13'26"
+ 36"
18.
Francesco Bongiorno
+ 13'30"
+ 40"
19.
Sigurd Nesset
+ 13'33"
+ 43"
20.
Andrei Amador
+ 13'34"
+ 44"
21.
Andy Schleck
+ 13'35"
+ 45"
22.
Denys Karnulin
+ 13'36"
+ 46"
23.
Richard Antonio Carapaz
+ 13'36"
+ 46"
24.
Rafael Valls
+ 13'44"
+ 54"
26.
Fabio Aru
+ 14'07"
+ 1'17"
27.
Nikias Arndt
+ 14'09"
+ 1'19"
28.
William Chiarello
+ 14'12"
+ 1'22"
29.
Marcus Faglum Karlsson
+ 14'19"
+ 1'29"
30.
Jonathan Salinas
+ 14'29"
+ 1'39"
31.
Tim Kennaugh
+ 14'42"
+ 1'52"
32.
Gregory Brenes
+ 14'44"
+ 1'54"
33.
Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev
+ 15'11"
+ 2'21"
47.
Simon Spilak
+ 17'06"
+ 4'16"
So it's still a really close race, with 14 riders within one minute. This order is pretty unlikely to change tomorrow - but let's see how it evolves in the three stages after, which we could call at least partly GC-defining!
Let's take a picture of Kamil Malecki one last time for today! As we already mentioned, he collected plenty of jerseys today - thereof the Maglia Ciclamino!
He leads the point standings with 72 points, ahead of Mikel Bizkarra with 61 and Arnaud Demare with 51. However, tomorrow's stage is flat rated, meaning there are 50 points awaiting the stage winner - this jersey definitely is most likely to change shoulders soon!
Kamil Malecki has taken the lead in the KoM standings as well, being the ex-aequo leader together with Kristaps Budenieks at 26 points. Mikel Bizkarra is 3rd with 18 points. With only a 4th category climb on the menu tomorrow, the only thing that could happen is one of the co-leaders taking the exclusive lead. Budenieks will wear the jersey tomorrow, with Malecki wearing the Maglia Rosa.
And finally - as always when the GC leader is U25 - Kamil Malecki gets the Maglia Bianca as well! In fact, the order on the first three spots is identical to the GC, meaning the Pole leads 3'48" ahead of Cyril Barthe - who will wear the jersey in his stead - and 9'10" ahead of Kristaps Budenieks. Let's see if any of these will still stand on top by the end of the race!
We finally get to see one non- Gazelle jersey - but it was a rather close call! PCT team Polar have taken the lead in the team standings, 59" ahead of aforementioned team Gazelle! Two riders in the breakaway made this possible, alongside with the huge deficit the peloton accumulated today.
cycleYorkshire are currently 3rd, 6'27" back, while the previous leaders from Isostar - Specialized drop to 5th. But just a few breakaway appearances, and this list can be turned upside down again!
Ladies and gentlemen, with these pictures we have arrived at the end of today's live broadcast. We had the first mountain stage - which was by far not as spectacular as we were hoping, and which saw a breakaway succeed by a huge margin. Leaving us with a GC leader who might hold onto his jersey for a few stages now.
Tomorrow should be a day for the sprinters - if they don't mess it up. We now had three breakaway wins in a row - time to change something? What has already changed is that we had a non-Italian stage winner - can the home fraction strike back? Tune in tomorrow to find out!
Giro d'Italia 
