Giro d'Italia Stage 5: Breaking Down a Scorching Fast Sprint Stage

A young team refused to follow the script and brought a formulaic sprint stage to life

Arnaud Démare captured a long-awaited grand tour stage win when he stormed to victory in a high-speed sprint over Fernando Gaviria and Giacomo Nizzolo in Messina on the Giro’s 5th stage. While it ended in a fairly typical bunch sprint, the stage was anything but formulaic due to Mathieu van der Poel’s team increasing the pace on a second category climb …