Wednesday 11 May 2016 17:28, UK
Germany’s Andre Greipel sprinted to victory on stage five of the Giro d’Italia as Tom Dumoulin retained the overall lead.
Greipel (Lotto Soudal) powered clear of the field on the cobbled, slightly uphill finish in Benevento and won by several bike lengths from Arnaud Demare (FDJ.fr) in second and Sonny Colbrelli (Bardiandi-CSF) in third.
Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) followed in the main group of the peloton four seconds later, but his overall lead was cut to 16 seconds after closest rival Bob Jungels (Etixx - Quick-Step) crossed the line on the same time as Greipel in fourth on the day.
Greipel's win was the fourth of his career at the Giro and 18th in a grand tour.
"Before the start, I said it would be a nice finish for me and it really was," he said. "I found my way through and launched my sprint when I saw a gap with 300m to go. I hesitated a bit, then I gave it everything. I'm really happy,"
Pink jersey contenders Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) also gained four seconds on Dumoulin, but they remain 27 and 35 seconds down on the Dutchman respectively.
Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and Mikel Landa (Team Sky) finished alongside Dumoulin and stay 26 and 47 seconds back respectively.
Dumoulin said: "I was told the Giro is a difficult race. Now I know why. Today it was up and down all day and the peloton went crazy in the finale.
"I didn't bother when Bob Jungels went for the sprint because the bonus of four seconds that he could have taken isn't much. I just looked after myself and that was already hard enough."
The Giro continues on Thursday with a a 157km mountain stage ending with a category-two summit finish at Roccaraso.
Stage five result
1 Andre Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal, 5:40:35
2 Arnaud Demare (Fra) FDJ.fr, same time
3 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bardiani-CSF, st
4 Bob Jungels (Lux) Etixx - Quick-Step, st
5 Moreno Hofland (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, st
6 Manuel Belletti (Ita) Wilier-Southeast, st
7 Rock Zabel (Ger) BMC Racing, st
8 Georg Preidler (Aut) Giant-Alpecin, st
9 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge, st
10 Alexey Tsatevich (Rus) Katisha, st
General classification
1 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Giant-Alpecin, 19:40:48
2 Bob Jungels (Lux) Etixx - Quick-Step, +16sec
3 Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre-Merida, +20
4 Georg Preidler (Aut) Giant-Alpecin, same time
5 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, +24
6 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana, +26
7 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, +27
8 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha, +35
9 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana, st
10 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky, +37
