Both Arrieta and Eulalio crashed in the finale. First, the day's winner was hit 15 kilometres before the finish, which meant that Eulalio already looked like the sure winner. When he also crashed later on, both were back on level terms. A good two kilometres later, the pendulum finally seemed to swing in favour of the new overall leader when Arrieta made another mistake and took a wrong road. But even that couldn't stop the Basque rider from winning.

"I don't really know what to say. I'm very happy about this win, it means a lot to me," he said in the winner's interview. "Even after my crash, I still believed I could win and knew I had to keep trying until the end. After such a tough day, you never know what will happen. I was completely empty in the last kilometre, but Eulalio was the same. We both deserved to win, but I managed it in the end. When I lost him in the last two kilometres, I thought to myself: This can't be happening now. When I was back on his wheel, I knew that I might be able to win a stage."

Eulalio overwhelmed

Meanwhile, Eulalio could console himself with pink, as the group of favourites had stopped chasing at the latest after the difficult climb a good 50 kilometres before the finish and crossed the finish line more than seven minutes behind. It didn't help that Giulio Ciccone (Lidl - Trek) in the maglia rosa took over the lead himself. "At the moment I still can't believe it, it feels very unreal. The whole day was crazy," said the new overall leader. "It was incredibly tough due to the weather and the climbs. I felt really bad at times, but that's how everyone must have felt today."

203 kilometres had to be completed from Praia a Mare to Potenza, the majority of which was in constant rain in cool temperatures. Meanwhile, the next day should be a little more leisurely. In Naples, the sprinters are likely to take the lead again. Arrieta, who celebrated his second victory as a professional, and Eulalio will be able to take it a little easier after the ride on the fifth stage of the Giro.

Giro d'Italia 2026 - Results of the 5th stage

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How the 5th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2026 went

The group of the day formed on the first climb of the day to Prestieri. Twelve riders gradually gathered together, including the best rider in the overall standings, Einer Rubio (Team Movistar), who was just ten seconds behind Rosa, Ben Turner (Netcompany INEOS), Victor Campenaerts (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) and the previous day's winner Jhonatan Narvaez (UAE Team Emirates - XRG). A little later, Darren Rafferty (EF Education - EasyPost) was joined by a lone rider.

In the flat middle section of the stage, the group's lead fluctuated between 1:30 and just over three minutes. This all happened in low temperatures and constant rain. Shortly before the climb to the Montagna Grande di Viggiano (2nd category), Igor Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) broke away from the leading group. The chasers then split up on the steep climb. With 52 kilometres to go, Afonso Eulalio (Bahrain - Victorious) had closed the gap to Arrieta again.

The duo also made it over the mountain classification together, but in the following kilometres they even turned two into three and a half minutes ahead, because Red Bull, which had taken over the pace work from Lidl-Trek in the middle of the stage, left the front of the peloton again. In Koen Bouwman (Team Jayco AlUla), Johannes Kulset (Uno-X Mobility) and Andrea Raccagni (Soudal Quick-Step), a trio then set off on their own in pursuit.

Top duo crashes independently of each other

However, they were no longer able to catch up with the leaders. Eulalio and Arrieta had a lead of almost three minutes on this trio at the Red Bull kilometre 28 kilometres from the finish and more than five minutes on the peloton. Only the other ex-members of the day's group Thomas Silva, Christian Scaroni (both XDS Astana), Gianmarco Garofoli (Soudal Quick-Step) and Lorenzo Milesi (Movistar Team) were still halfway within striking distance at one minute behind.

Around 15 kilometres into the race, Arrieta crashed on a wet descent. However, he was barely injured and quickly jumped back on his bike. Nevertheless, the stage win seemed to be a thing of the past. However, six kilometres before the finish, Eulalio also slipped and had to go down. The Spanish-Portuguese duo completed the route to the finish together again, and the other chasers were unable to capitalise on this. A good 2000 metres before the finish, Arrieta made another mistake and rode into a road that had been closed off with barrier tape.

But even that wasn't the end of the race. Because on the slightly uphill finishing straight, 150 metres before the finish, he once again caught up with the completely exhausted Eulalio, who was no longer able to defend himself and could only congratulate his disbelieving opponent on his victory.