Fredrik Dversnes received the fifth stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico on Friday as Filippo Ganna held his total lead although a mechanical failure within the finale left him trailing the peloton.
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Norwegian Dversnes claimed his first ever World Tour win forward of star riders like Tom Pidcock and Mathieu van der Poel after spending nearly the entire 205km hike from Ascoli Piceno to Pergola as a part of a breakaway.
“I’d had a pretty hard, cold two days, so with this weather today, it turned out to be a good stage,” stated Dversnes.
“Then in the final climb, I got instructions from my sports director to go all in and fortunately it turned out to be good enough. There was a pretty hard kicker up at a kilometre to go, so I wasn’t sure if I could win until 500 metres to go.”
Ganna remains to be 22 seconds forward of Juan Ayuso within the normal classification, however the Ineos rider got here very near dropping his lead after his chain went with lower than 5 kilometres remaining.
The Italian, who’s a two-time time-trial world champion and a monitor biking specialist, held on to the peloton all through an extended trip filled with punchy climbs earlier than almost slipping out of competition on the final.
However he managed to simply about stick with the primary bunch till three kilometres to go the place his time was neutralised, permitting him to remain prime of the pile.
“I tried to put the chain back but it got stuck, I hit the pedal too hard and I smashed it,” stated Ganna to broadcaster RAI.
“I managed to get into the final three kilometres and I held my hand up to take the neutralised time, but it was close.”
If Ganna is to maintain the blue jersey for total chief he must stick with the overall classification contenders in Saturday’s Queen Stage a 163km run that ends with a summit end of the Frontignano.
This appears unlikely given his lack of pedigree as a climber, however he stated he would give it a go as the ultimate stage is a procession to San Benedetto del Tronto on Italy’s Adriatic coast.
“Yesterday and the day before weren’t my type of stage either,” stated Ganna.
“I’m going day by day, let’s see tomorrow how I’m feeling.”
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