It was supposed to be a bunch sprint. With 100km to go on stage five of the Giro d'Italia, everything was altogether and a sprint finish in Lucca seemed inevitable. Alpecin-Deceuninck had put the pace on the day's big classified climb, tested some sprinters out, and accidentally snuffed out what was supposed to be the day's big break, but all was calm.
When another quartet escaped up the road with 77km to go, there was little reaction from the bunch. The gap grew to about 1:20, but this was never too threatening, there was still time for everything to come back together again, surely, even with a fourth-category climb with 22km to go. That calm proved to be the peloton's undoing.
