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Stage 5 of the 2023 Giro d’Italia was supposed to be a simple day for the sprinters with a straightforward finish along the Gulf of Salerno. However, a day of rain and slippery roads led to multiple crashes along the 171km loop from Atripalda to Salerno.
Former race leader Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep) was involved in at two of the mass crashes, the first of which came when a dog ran into the peloton and took down a dozen riders after 20km of racing
The world champion went down again late on in a crash that saw at least half a dozen men go down across the road. Fortunately, the pileup came inside the final 3km and did not cost him any time on the general classification. Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost) were also caught up.
Earlier on the run to the line, another crash at around 7km to go saw race leader Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM) and Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) involved along with sprinters Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Fernando Gaviria (Movistar), and Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates).
Roglič said later on “it’s all good” after his team was able to bring him back into the peloton before the finish. “It was just super big luck with the second crash… I’m just happy to be here!”
The most bizarre crash came just before the finish line when Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) slipped on the painted white line during the reduced bunch sprint and kept his bike upright but, just as he had given up the idea of contesting the stage, Alberto Dainese (Team DSM) veered across his path, seemingly touching his front wheel with Cavendish sent careering right into Filippo Fiorelli (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizané).
The Italian somehow managed to keep his bike upright by leaning into the barriers, escaping with a cut to his hand, but Cavendish was knocked off balance wildly and sprawled across the…
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