Direct witnesses of a historic day for cycling, an exercise in survival

56th Tirreno Adriatico
Stage 5: Castellalto-Castelfildardo (205 km)

Sometimes you hear that breakaways are easy to create, that they are the result of pacts, that certain teams or riders let them do it… On the route to Castelfilardo, a fierce fight to form the breakaway. A fruitless task until the stage, with a frenetic start, had almost 50 kilometres to go. A breakaway with illustrious names, in which EOLO-KOMETA fought for a place. But its gestation was complex, very difficult. And its advantage, once born, never exceeded four minutes. A day of constant struggle under adverse weather conditions.

And on reaching the final circuit, the one with the walls, the one with the four laps, a Dante’s inferno. Cold. Rain. Also wind. An exercise in survival. A revolution with the signature of the men in the general classification or the illustrious members of the peloton. Dutchman Mathieu Van der Poel won. Possibly, the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar won the general classification. Huge gap. Almost 14 minutes after Van der Poel, only 31 riders had reached the finish line.

Vincenzo Albanese: “Today in the first part we had the objective to go in the breakaway, but as it turned out we did the first hour at almost 60 km average. We tried but it was really difficult. Then, in the second part, it turned out to be a race that will go down in history because nothing was missing: cold, water, wind, climbs. In fact we arrived one by one, it was really hard: but this effort will come in handy in the races to come”.

Mark Christian: “Tough, tough, really tough. It’s now been two hours since we arrived, I’ve had a shower…but I still can’t clench my fists and my hands still feel cold. Very hard. Every metre that went by I thought it was one metre less that separated me from the finish line. Very hard”

This Monday, the sixth stage connects Castelraimondo with Lido di Fermo over 169 kilometres, which is the last chance for the adventurers and sprinters. The route is not easy and invites skirmishes. Another day to fight for.

[ Maurizio Borserini]