Results Giro d'Italia 2026 stage 5 - Igor Arrieta wins DRAMATIC day after late crash and detour; Afonso Eulálio takes pink jersey on chaotic rainy day

Stage 5 of the Giro d'Italia has been one of the most chaotic days in recent history. The rainy weather saw plenty chaos at the start of the stage and Giulio Ciccone has lost the race lead. Igor Arrieta took the stage win after a crash and a wrong turn in the final 15 kilometers; beating Afonso Eulálio who himself crashed in the finale but has taken over the race lead.

The stage had 203 kilometers in length and after just 10, rain began to fall heavily on the riders. Whilst the temperatures were not too low, the rain proved to be a challenge all day long for the peloton which made for the most difficult day of the race so far.

The stage began seeing attacks on the first categorized climb, with Einer Rubio, Afonso Eulálio and stage 2 winner Guillermo Thomas Silva. After the end of the climb, they were joined by Victor Campenaerts and Gianmarco Garofoli; whilst Giulio Ciccone was amongst those active to cover attacks in order to try and protect his pink jersey.

However in the hilltop that followed, there were plenty more attacks, and a breakaway of over a dozen was formed. Ben Turner, Lorenzo Milesi, Igor Arrieta, Jhonatan Narváez, Manuele Tarozzi, Christian Scaroni and Martin Tjotta joined the front; whilst later on Darren Rafferty also bridged across. Missing the breakaway, a few teams assisted Lidl-Trek in controlling the gap at first, but most of the work was then left for Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier.

The gap remained stable around 2 minutes for most of the day as the breakaway did not collaborate properly. As soon as the riders entered the decisive section of climbs, Igor Arrieta attacked in front. On the major climb to Viggiano, 6.6 kilometers at over 9%, Afonso Eulálio attacked behind and bridged across to the Spaniard, whilst the group behind split fully. In the peloton, there was no GC action, instead with Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe controlling the pace.

The front duo collaborated after the climb and extended their gap over the rest. Behind, Giulio Ciccone briefly hit the front to try and protect the race lead, but eventually abandoned the goal. No-one would take responsibility in the peloton and ultimately the gap began skyrocketing, putting Eulálio in the provisional race lead as Einer Rubio had cracked and got caught by the peloton in Viggiano.

With 14 kilometers to go, on one of the many wet descents, Arrieta crashed whilst taking some risks. It looked to be a winner-takes-all for Eulálio, but then the Portuguese himself crashed with 6.5 kilometers to go, looking hurt. Arrieta joined Eulálio once again and looked set for the stage win.

But this would change again, as with 2 kilometers to go Arrieta took a wrong turn on the final descent and lost the wheel of Eulálio once again. It seemed like the Portuguese climber was set for the stage win, but in the uphill rise to the line Arrieta would come from behind once again and closed the gap to take an emotional stage win. Eulálio has however gained an immense amount of time which allowed him to jump into the race lead. Christian Scaroni finished third from behind.