Giro d'Italia 2014 - Stage 5

The 2014 Giro d'Italia continued with its fifth stage, a race of 203 kilometres from Taranto to Viggiano. Stage five was the first real uphill finish, but it was likely to suit the puncheurs of the peloton rather than the out and out climbers. It could also be ripe territory for a breakaway, as the sprinter's teams wouldn't have much to work for.

There was a strong headwind for much of the stage, but despite this, a breakaway was still keen to get away. After 22 kilometres of racing an eleven man group went clear, including Ben Swift (Sky Procycling), the Garmin-Sharp duo of Fabian Wegmann and Tyler Farrar, Kenny Dehaes and Tosh Van Der Sande of Lotto Belisol and Bjorn Thurau of Europcar, among others.

Orica-GreenEDGE naturally as race leaders took responsibility for the chase with helps from the likes of Astana and Movistar Team. Ben Swift won the intermediate sprint points ahead of Elia Viviani of Cannondale and Tyler Farrar, and when the climbs were approaching, the peloton were chasing them at a leisurely pace.

On the first climb of the day the breakaway split with the sprinters in the move dropping back, but with twenty three kilometres to go it didn't matter, the peloton had swept up the rest of the move. The descent of the first climb caused problems for the peloton, with crashes affecting riders such as Mikel Landa of Astana, but Gianluca Brambilla of Omega Pharma-Quickstep attacked off the front.

He was well chased down by Katusha Team, working for Joaquim Rodriguez, and on the final climb the general classification contenders were cautious, watching each other before the real mountains. Rodriguez went early with 500 metres to go, but he died away enough for Diego Ulissi of Lampre-Merida to come past and take the win ahead of the Australian Cadel Evans. Michael Matthews finished very well in sixth to hold on to the maglia rosa for at least another day.