Ackermann wins stage as Roglic keeps pink jersey

Pascal Ackermann powered his way to a second stage victor y at the Giro d’ Italia, while P rim oz Roglic retained the pink jersey on a rain-soaked day five.

B or a-Hans gr oh er ider Ackermann, pictured, making his Grand Tour debut, negotiated surface water to surge past Fernando Gaviria and snatch a dramatic victor y on the line by half a wheel.

French man A rn aud Demare (Groupama-fdj) finished third, while Australian Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) recovered from a puncture with 30km to go to take fourth place.

Torrential downpours meant general classification times were recorded around 9km from the end of the 140km route from Frascati to Terracina.

There were no changes among the race leaders, with Team Jumbo-visma r id erRoglic finishing safelyint he pe lot on to remain 35 seconds ahead of Britain’s Simon Yates (Mitchelton-s cott). Italian Vincenzo Nib ali (Bahrain-merida) is four seconds behind Yates, while Colombian Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana Pro Team) sits five seconds further back.

Former champion Tom Du moulinsuffe red disappointment after being forced to withdraw shortly after the start of the stage having failed to recover from a crash. The Dutch rider, who won the race in 2017 and was four minutes 30 seconds behind the leaders, injured his knee in a heavy fall on Tuesday, with Team Sun web tweeting the problem had “proved too painful”.

Stage winner A ck ermann described the difficult weather conditions as “scary” and said “it was lucky nobody crashed”.

The 25-year-old German over came Gaviria(UAE Team Emirates) with a perfectly-timed sprint after the Colombian kicked early.

The three-week race continues today with a 238km route from Cassino to San Giovanni Rotondo.