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.
As time ticked on, and the gap still hovered around a minute, alarm bells should have been going off in the peloton. Somehow, despite the best efforts of all those squads trying to go for a sprint win, four tired riders up the road could not be brought back. The tailwind helped, as did twisting, fast roads, but it was not supposed to happen.
In the end, Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis) out-sprinted Michael Valgren (EF Education-EasyPost), Andrea Pietrobon (Polti Kometa) and Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ), with the peloton a further few seconds back. It was the great escape.
"It was a long, long team pursuit," Thomas said. "We did an amazing break, and I don’t believe it. It was really hard in the final. Every pull was full gas. It is unbelievable.
"I think with 10km to go, we had 50, 40 seconds still, and it was a tailwind, so we had an advantage. We were going 60kph so it was hard for the bunch to close."
His break companion, Valgren, had less faith until later: "It was only with 3 or 4km to go [he thought the break would stay awa]. You always think the peloton will take 10 seconds a kilometre more or less. We kept working well together, and it was in our favour, it was kind of downhill, and you can only go a certain speed with the same gearing. Chapeau to the other guys for working well together, we didn’t start to play games.
"The Polti guy was taking short turns but then came with that late attack, which messed up the cooperation. I had to go on a really long sprint, a Magnus Cort sprint. We worked well together, we knew it would be difficult, so lucky we made it."
For all the sprint teams, but especially Alpecin-Deceuninck, this was a big opportunity missed, a failure to set the race up right. The Belgian team might have shaken things up on the day's third-category climb, the Passo del Bracco, but they could not deliver Kaden Groves to the final kilometre in a race-winning position. It didn't matter that they had distanced the likes of Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) and Fabio Jakobsen (dsm-firmenich PostNL), if there was no sprint in the end.
"We used a lot of energy early, and I think that cost us a bit later trying to bring back the break," Groves said. "The break was incredibly fast, I’m guessing a bit of help from the motos. These stages happen every now and again.
"I don’t really know what to say, it was a super strong breakaway and the tailwind helped too. Every now and again a strong break stays. We had a plan, executed the early bits really well. Unfortunately, we got a little bit lost in the final."
There is always bitter disappointment juxtaposed with elation at the end of a bike race, when only one can win, but there is a lot more disappointment to be shared around on a day like Wednesday, when a sprint chance goes begging.
For Valgren, who finished second, there was joy in simply being there to contest a stage win.
"It’s the Giro right, it means a lot," he said. "A couple of years back I nearly didn’t have a contract. The team really helped me through this in a really good way, and I’m happy to pay things back. I’m just grateful that I can still be a cyclist, so thanks to everybody."
Thomas was delighted, Valgren was happy to be able to contest a stage win, while dozens more were left gutted. It was supposed to be a bunch sprint, but the break won.
