EWAN STAGES GIRO CHARGE
AUSTRALIA’S Caleb Ewan won the fifth stage of the Giro d’Italia in a sprint finish as Italy’s Alessandro De Marchi kept hold of the overall lead and one of the favourites Mikel Landa crashed out.
Lotto-Soudal’s Ewan overtook Giacomo Nizzolo to triumph in the final metres of a flat stage that was hit by collisions as the race came to its climax in Cattolica on the Adriatic coast.
Elia Viviani and Peter Sagan followed behind in a bunch finish.
“The goal to start with was one win. I’ve done that and I’m pretty hungry to win as much as I can,” said Ewan.
“This is good confidence for the team and myself going forward and we’ll give the next few sprint stages a good shot as well.”
Ewan’s fourth stage success on the Giro came at the main expense of Nizzolo, second for the 11th time and still looking for his first Giro stage victory.
The most notable of the crash victims was Spaniard Landa, who fell heavily in the last 5km of the 177km ride from Modena.
He was stretchered off the road by a medical team after colliding into Tuesday’s stage winner Joe Dombrowski, who fell into the peloton after hitting a traffic island.