Arrieta pulls off all-time Giro comeback to win stage 5 as Eulálio takes race lead

Igor Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) claimed the first Grand Tour stage victory of his career on stage 5 of the Giro d'Italia in Potenza in one of the most dramatic finales in recent times. 

The Spanish rider was part of a strong breakaway and went clear alongside Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain-Victorious). The duo cooperated well and built a significant advantage over the remnants of the breakaway and the chasing peloton, meaning that Eulálio was very likely to move into the maglia rosa. 

There was a significant moment with 13km remaining when Arrieta suffered a crash on a wet corner, effectively handing Eulálio the opportunity to take the stage win alongside the race lead. 

However, just a few kilometres later, Eulálio suffered his own crash, meaning that Arrieta rejoined the front of the race. But yet another twist of fate came inside the final 2km when Arrieta misjudged a corner and went off course. 

Despite this, Arrieta managed to catch Eulálio in the final few hundred metres, Mathieu van der Poel 2019 Amstel Gold Race style, to win a memorable stage. 

Eulálio had the consolation of moving into the race lead at the end of a chaotic stage.

A 13-man breakaway group eventually established itself up the road after numerous attempts to form an established breakaway failed.

The composition of the break was strong. Rubio sat just 10 seconds down on GC entering the stage, making him the virtual race leader as soon as the move got clear. Christian Scaroni and Silva had both gone up the road for XDS Astana, with Silva, the previous race leader, who had been distanced on stage 4.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG had two riders, with Jhonatan Narváez fresh from his stage 4 win in Cosenza and Igor Arrieta alongside him. Ben Turner gave Netcompany-Ineos a card in the move. 

Other riders included Victor Campenaerts (Visma | Lease a Bike), Gianmarco Garofoli (Soudal Quick-Step), Lorenzo Milesi (Movistar), Manuele Tarozzi (Bardiani CSF 7 Saber), Martin Tjøtta (Uno-X Mobility), Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious) and Darren Rafferty (EF Education-EasyPost) bridged across later.

For Lotto-Intermarché, the day was going from bad to worse. Joshua Giddings became the third Lotto-Intermarché rider to leave the race in five days, abandoning during the stage and joining Arnaud De Lie (DNF stage 4) and Milan Menten (DNS stage 5) on the list of casualties from the illness outbreak that has wrecked the team's Giro. 

Lennert Van Eetvelt and Toon Aerts are now the team's only realistic cards for the rest of the race.

With just over 70 kilometres remaining, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe took control of proceedings in the peloton with the other general classification teams coming to the front of the peloton to position their starmen for the climb of Montagna Grande di Viggiano, which was 6.6 km at 9.2%.

In turn, this slashed the breakaway's gap down to under two minutes, which led to the pendulum swinging towards the peloton. With that in mind, Igor Arrieta shot off the front of the breakaway with 62 kilometres to go, taking 30 seconds over the break of the day, which had split on the slopes on the climb, and the peloton could sense them.

No attacks occurred from the peloton on the Montagna Grande di Viggiano, but Afonso Eulálio had bridged across to Arrieta at the front of the race, and the duo held 2:17 over the peloton, which expanded.

An attack did occur from the peloton just after the climb. With Johannes Kulset (Uno-X Mobility), Koen Bouwman (Jayco AlUla), and Andrea Raccagni (Soudal Quick-Step) taking advantage. 

Race leader Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) came to the front of the peloton to ride for a spell, but this didn't change the momentum. The front duo's advantage ballooned to over seven minutes.

However, with 13.6km remaining, Arrieta crashed on a descent in a corner. He was able to remount, but the Spanish rider had a considerable chase to catch Eulalio. He was aided when Eulálio suffered his own crash, but then Arrieta went off course inside the final 2km. 

Yet somehow, the Spanish rider managed to catch Eulálio and pass him in the closing metres.