(Reuters) – Favourite Remco Evenepoel crashed twice on stage five of the Giro d’Italia on Wednesday, the first time after a dog strayed on to the road in treacherous conditions caused by driving rain, before Kaden Groves won the stage in a bunch sprint.
The 171-km route from Atripalda to Salerno had riders spend the majority of the ride in the rain with little relief, riding cautiously on the descents, but chaos ensued when two big crashes ahead of the final sprint split the bunch.
With less than 2 km to go, a crash brought Evenepoel down again along with many riders, leaving the Belgian world champion fuming while the rest of the bunch surged ahead.
Alpecin–Deceuninck’s Groves then dominated the sprint to win with stage two winner Jonathan Milan in hot pursuit while Mark Cavendish crashed on the finish line.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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