Winning ways pay off for Weening at Giro d'Italia

A Dutch cyclist survived on the final, short climb of a crash-plagued Stage 5 as the Giro d'Italia favorites waited for each other to take the initiative.

The stage victory for Rabobank's Pieter Weening, 30, also made him the overall race leader in Wednesday's bike race from Piombino to Orvieto.

The 191km (118-mile) route through the Tuscany region of Italy included about 12 miles of dirt, which caused some sketchy cycling and a number of crashes.

Crashes

The most serious appeared to be Rabobank's Tom Slagter who fell hard at the side of the road and did not immediately get up; commentary later reported that he suffered a cut head.

The dirt also played a factor in the failure of a two-man chase with about 12 miles to go. Dario Cataldo (QuickStep) slid off the dirt road in a cloud of dust, and the jostling of the uneven surface caused the chain to drop off Bram Tamkink's (Rabobank) bicycle.

That helped Martin Kohler (BMC) to survive in his solo breakaway for a little longer. Although he was later caught by Weening and John Gadret (AG2R) about 6 miles from the finish line, Kohler won the green jersey for king of the mountains as he was the first to cross the two Category 3 summits.

Final attack

After Weening and Gadret caught Kohler, Weening attacked almost immediately and gained about 40 seconds on the field. While all the expected race leaders chased him into Orvieto, they got cagey and watched each other for an attack in the final kilometer. By the time anyone attacked, Weening was safe.

Garmin-Cervelo's David Millar had to relinquish the maglia rosa. Bloodied in a crash, Millar had to chase back to the main group a couple of times on Stage 5 and didn't have anything left for a short 12% climb in Orvieto.

This was Weening's second stage victory in a Grand Tour, having won a stage in the 2005 Tour de France.

Upcoming stage

Thursday's Stage 6 is a 216k (134-mile) bike race from Orvieto to Fiuggi. It's another rolling stage with very little flat terrain in the foothills of the Apennines, but the only climb is a Category 4.