Top placed Brit Max Poole experiences lucky near miss on Giro d’Italia stage 5: “Had to check his effort to avoid a potential crash”

Five stages into the 2025 Giro d’Italia, 22-year-old Max Poole is enjoying a promising start to his first appearance at the Italian Grand Tour. The British rider, racing for Team Picnic PostNL, currently sits seventh in the general classification, just 26 seconds behind overall pre-race favourite Primoz Roglic.

It’s a performance that comes at a crucial time for both Poole and his team. Picnic PostNL are locked in a WorldTour relegation battle and need every UCI point they can get. Poole’s strong position on GC, alongside his climbing form and sprint presence, could prove vital over the next two and a half weeks.

Poole narrowly missed out on a high placing in yesterday’s stage into Matera after being forced to check his sprint in the final metres. Running into trouble after being clipped by second-place finisher Edoardo Zambanini, Poole’s shot at a podium result vanished in an instant.

The team told Cycling News, "Poole started his sprint from around sixth wheel but unfortunately had to check his effort to avoid a potential crash; with the duo ultimately finishing safely in the peloton."

Romain Bardet, another experienced figure in the Picnic PostNL lineup, added, "We were there in the last kilometre, but unfortunately, we couldn't sprint the way we wanted to as Max got blocked a bit."

While the crash avoidance cost Poole a potential top result, his consistency has kept him firmly in the GC conversation, especially given the mountains still to come.

Born in Scunthorpe, Poole is contesting just his third career Grand Tour, having finished 35th overall at the 2024 Vuelta a España. He arrived at the Giro on the back of an impressive seventh place at the Tour of the Alps, where he also claimed the young riders classification.

Stage 5 saw his teammate Chris Hamilton get into the day’s main break, further underlining the team’s collective strength. Reflecting on the stage, Hamilton said in a team press release, “It was our intention to get someone up in the break today because we thought it could be good chance for it.

“I managed to find myself in a pretty good group but unfortunately we didn’t get too big a time gap and the bunch didn’t let us get too far up the road. We were caught just over the top of the final climb. From then on, it was about keeping Romain and Max safe and in position for the final which we did well. I think it was another good team display from the guys.”