As it happened: Tirreno-Adriatico stage 5

Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage of stage 5 of Tirreno-Adriatico, where racing gets underway at 1155 CET.

Early news of the day is that Chris Froome (Israel-Premier Tech) will be a DNS, suffering from a broken wrist. Full report here:

Chris Froome abandons Tirreno-Adriatico with fractured wrist

Courtesy of FirstCycling here are the current standings on GC, headed by sprinter Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek). But on a day with a major mountain in the last 40 kilometres, we can expect it to be looking very different by this evening.

On today's menu:

Climb:  Km 54.8 Castellalto: (7.7 km à 4.5%)

Sprint: Km 88.7 Campli

Climb: Km 120.6 San Giacomo (11.9 km à 6.2%)

Finish: Km 144: Valle Castellana

Riders are heading to the neutralised start now

Here's a map of today's stage, which has no less than 2,800 metres of vertical climbing. In 144 kilometres, that's a lot.

144 kilometres to go

And racing for stage 5 of Tirreno-Adriatico is underway. 

Lots of attacks going but the peloton remains altogether

Four DNS today:

Anthony Delaplace (Arkea-B&B)
Chris Froome (Israel-Premier Tech)
Rune Herregodts (Intermarché-Wanty)
Kristian Sbaragli  (Corratec-Vini Fantini)

The best placed overall was Delaplace, in 86th overall nearly three minutes down, so none of them were figuring on the GC rider, but Sbaragli was an outsider in the sprints, and the other three could all have been options for breakaways.

The four DNS leave us with 163 riders in today's race.

Six riders form the first early breakaway, but the peloton isn't giving them much space:

Filippo Ganna (Ineos-Grenadiers)
Alessandro De Marchi (Jayco-AlUla)
Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon-AG2R)
Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech)
Ivan Garcia Cortina (Movistar)
Damien Howson (Q36.5)

130 kilometres to go

Despite Uno-X Mobility driving in the peloton the gap inches up to 30 seconds, but this is far from certain to go clear.

A further three riders are attempting to bridge across:  Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-Quick Step), Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) and Nicolo Bonifazio (Q36.5). 

Clement Davy (Groupama-FDJ) also in the group trying to bridge across. Uno-X stopped chasing as Magnus Cort is part of that same counter-attack, so Visma-Lease A Bike currently head the pursuit in the pack.

While we're wait for a definitive move to go clear, here's a photo from today's start, with the four classification leaders. L-R: Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) in the BYR jersey; Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), GC leader; Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), wearing the points jersey as leader Milan heads the overall; Davide Bais (Polti-Kometa) for the mountains.

The four counter attackers have now bridged across to the six early breakaways so we have a move of ten riders ahead, with about two minutes on the peloton:

Filippo Ganna (Ineos-Grenadiers)
Alessandro De Marchi (Jayco-AlUla)
Kyrylo Tsarenko (Corratec-Vini Fantini)
Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech)
Ivan Garcia Cortina (Movistar)
Damien Howson (Q36.5)
Niccolò Bonifazio (Q36.5)
Kasper Asgreen (Soudal -Quick Step)
Clément Davy (Groupama-FDJ)
Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility)

110 kilometres to go

And the gap for what very much looks like the break of the day now stands at 2:40. 

With so many top names in the move, the 10-rider break is having serious problems staying away, and the gap has now dropped back to just under 90 seconds.

-96km

Break:

Alessandro De Marchi (Jayco Alula), Niccolò Bonifazio (Corratec-Vini Fantini), Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Clement Davy (Groupama-FDJ), Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech), Ivan García Cortina (Movistar), Damien Howson (Q36.5), Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-QuickStep) and Magnus Cort Nielsen (Uno-X Mobility).

Peloton at 2:05

Visma-Lease A Bike continue to set the pace in the peloton on behalf of Jonas Vingegaard.

It's been a brisk start to proceedings, with the escapees covering 45.9km in the first hour of racing.

-85km

The peloton has eaten into the break's over the climb of Castellato, and the gap has shrunk to 1:15 as they drop down the other side.

The high pace is also exacting a toll at the rear of the peloton, with Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) among the riders reportedly in difficulty.

-80km

The situation has stabilised slightly once again for the men in front, and their advantage is back up to 1:27. Visma, however, continue to dictate terms in the peloton, with Steven Kruijswijk and Dylan van Baarle setting the tempo. 

Milan is in a group of 20 or so riders with other fast men including Cees Bol, Biniam Girmay and Alexander Kristoff, and they're currently around 30 seconds behind the main peloton.

-76km

Visma-Lease A Bike continue to prepare the terrain for Jonas Vingegaaard, and their efforts have cut the break's lead back to a minute.

Steven Kruijswijk is putting in a considerable shift for Visma at the head of the bunch. Injury ruined the Dutchman's 2023 season and he missed out on the team's sweep of the Grand Tours, but he played a key role in their journey from the ashes of the Rabobank team to their current position. His spell in the pink jersey at the 2016 Giro d'Italia - not to mention a striking cameo at Aprica the previous year - served as a something of a turning point for the team's ambition. At the end of last season, Kruijswijk talked Cyclingnews  through the team's development over the previous decade.

-72km

Break:

Alessandro De Marchi (Jayco Alula), Niccolò Bonifazio (Corratec-Vini Fantini), Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Clement Davy (Groupama-FDJ), Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech), Ivan García Cortina (Movistar), Damien Howson (Q36.5), Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-QuickStep) and Magnus Cort Nielsen (Uno-X Mobility)

Peloton at 0:55

60 kilometres to go

We're closing in fast on the one intermediate sprint of the day at Campli (Km 88.7), but despite the hot pursuit it looks like the ten riders ahead will still be able to stay away from the bunch.

And here's a photo of the break of the day

Ganna takes the intermediate sprint.

Visma-Lease A Bike are pushing very hard in the peloton, with Kruijswijk still doing much of the hard work, and the gap for the 10 riders ahead has shrunk to under a minute.

Overnight leader Milan, meanwhile, is more than three minutes down on the pack. A new face at the top of GC tonight, then.

A shot of the pack, led by Visma-Lease A Bike

UAE Team Emirates have added their collective shoulder to the wheel, shaving another ten seconds off the break's advantage.

43 kilometres to go

The gap drops to 35 seconds. At this rate, the bunch will have caught the break before the big climb of the day, the San Giacomo.

And here's a profile of what the riders will be facing in less than five kilometres time...

Magnus Cort leads the 10 rider break onto the San Giacomo: 11.9 km à 6.2%.

Clement Davy (Groupama-FDJ) and Niccolo Bonifazio (Corratec-Vini Fantini) have dropped back from the break and riders are being shed from the bunch as well. 

33 kilometres to go

Vendrame attacks from the break

Vendrame is being shadowed by De Marchi, Simon Clarke and Magnus Cort

Michal Kwiatkowski, the only former Tirreno-Adriatico winner in this year's peloto, is dropped.

Attila Valter (Visma-Lease A Bike) continues to press on at the front of the peloton, with his leader Jonas Vingegaard in third wheel.

Valter sweeps past Filippo Ganna and Simon Clarke. Just three riders ahead: Cort, De Marchi and Vendrame.

Former Giro d'Italia stage winner Vendrame is doing the bulk of the work in the break, but the peloton have the trio in their sights.

30.5 kilometres to go

Break caught. We're seven kilometres from the summit, but the main bunch is all together for now.

Valter swings off, his job done, and it's new recruit for 2024 Ben Tulett who takes over for Visma-Lease A Bike.

Vingegaard is just 22 seconds down on Juan Ayuso, currently the race leader on the road, and as statements of intent go from VIsma-Lease A Bike, this is quite a big one.

The bunch is shattering under the pressure of Visma-Lease A Bike.

29 kilometres to go

Vingegaard attacks

A colossal acceleration from the Dane, second overall in Tirreno-Adriatico 2022 and currently fighting to take the lead in 2024 in fine style.

Vingegaard has barely gone more than half a kilometre, but he's already opening a huge gap on closest pursuers, West Australia duo Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Ben O'Connor (Decathlon-AG2R).

15 seconds is the gap for Vingegaard, and we've still got four kilometres to go to the summit.

Stage 1 winner Ayuso is visibly struggling, shoulders rocking as the Spaniard fights to regain contact with Hindley and O'Connor at the head of a small group.

Meanwhile Vingegaard forges onward, all but doubling his advantage to 27 seconds in the space of a kilometre.

Ayuso's group also contains Thymen Arensman (Ineos-Grenadiers), Ivan Sosa (Movistar)  and Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma-Lease A Bike)

Hindley, meanwhile drops O'Connor and forges on alone. But Vingegaard is 40 seconds ahead and counting now.

Tour Down Under stage winner Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) has joined the Ayuso group and after catching O'Connor, the young Mexican is driving away at the front in defence of his Spanish leader to try and reel in Hindley.

Del Toro impressed enormously in his professional debut in Australia and here he's doing so again, reeling in Hindley. But Vingegaard now has nearly a minute on the rest of the field.

Vingegaard crosses the summit of the San Giacomo with around 56 seconds to spare

22 kilometres to go

55 seconds disadvantage for the group of chasers as they power over the top of the climb in pursuit of Vingegaard. But for now, it's very much advantage Denmark.

Vingegaard forges on, powering down fast, well-surfaced roads to the valley floor. He showed off his descending skills with a vengeance at his previous race, O Gran Camiño, and here they are clearly no less effective.

Vingegaard's first place on the San Giacomo has netted him the lead in the mountains ranking, but there's another classification likely on his mind right now.

The chasing group is shattering on the descent, and Hindley, Arensman, Uijtdebroeks, Ayuso and Del Toro have gained some space on the other pursuers.

The presence of Uijtdebroeks in the chase group, of course, plays even further in  Vingegaard's favour.

15 kilometres to go

Vingegaard has 54 seconds on the closest group of chasers. We've still got six kilometres of downhill to go.

If Vingegaard wins, by the way, it'll be his fifth of the 2024 season and first at WorldTour level this year.

Ben O'Connor (Decathlon-AG2R) has latched onto the chase group as the two UAE riders, Ayuso and Del Toro, lead the pursuit. But by this point, they're fighting for second behind Vingegaard.

The gap is staying stable for now at just under a mintue, as Vingegaard seemingly opts not to take too many risks on the fast descent. 

The last nine kilometres are essentially a grinding, but not overly hard, uphill climb, to Valle Castellana, the steepest gradient a short ramp at 8% in the final kilometre.

And here is the moment where Vingegaard went on the rampage on the San Giacomo...

Arensman has taken over from Del Toro at the head of the chase group as the road begins to rise again to the finish.

7 kilometres to go

56 seconds still in Vingegaard's favour, as the gap broadens slowly again. Its not quite game over, but almost.

Race situation:

Vingegaard

Del Toro, Ayuso, Hindley, Arensman, O'Connor and Uijtdebroeks at 1:06

Sosa: 1:22

A small downhill segment for Vingegaard, and he bounds round the corners looking confident and in control. His main job of the day has definitely been done. 

Four kilometres to go

1:09 the gap. Del Toro is trying hard, but at the moment Vingegaard is pulling away even more.

The road rises gently again as Vingegaard time trials his way under the 3km-to-go sign. He's got this more than in the bag.

Uijtdebroeks, meanwhile, sits at the back of the group of chasers. He was with Vingegaard when he won in O Gran Camiño, and he's here again watching over the opposition as the Dane triumphs again in Tirreno.

Two kilometres to go

No celebrations yet from Vingegaard, even though he's clearly going to win. The aim for now is presumably to get as much time as possible and then defend - by attacking again? -  on Saturday.

Vingegaard sweeps into the final kilometre, heading for victory number 5 of this season and his first lead in Tirreno-Adriatico to boot.

Vingegaard comes out of the saddle for the gradual little rise in the last kilometre, pushing for as big a gap as possible.

One last look under the arm and Vingegaard crosses the line alone and ahead of the field.

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike) wins stage 5  of the 2024 Tirreno-Adriatico and moves into the overall lead

Ayuso picks up second place and a six second time bonus, outsprinting Hindley at the line. 1:13 the gap for Vingegaard.

Cian Uijtdebroeks claims sixth and quickly stops to congratulate Vingegaard on his storming ride.

A stunning performance from Vingegaard, coming a day earlier than the crunch stage of Tirreno-Adriatico and more than living up to his status as overall favourite.
It's one which compares notably in Vingegaard's favour, too, with how he fared last year over the border at Paris-Nice, placing third behind Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ). 

And here's the stage classification, courtesy of First Cycling

And the GC top ten as well

The battle for second and third on GC is far from over, of course, and Vingegaard still has to come through stage 6, the hardest day of the race. But for now the wind is blowing strongly in his favour.

And here's a first shot of Vingegaard crossing the line for the day's win

Some words from Jonas Vingegaard, stage 5 winner and  the new leader of Tirreno-Adriatico 2024
Asked if he always planned to attack on stage 5 and not wait for the key mountain stage on Saturday, Vingegaard said:
"To be honest, we always had the plan to give it a shot today and we did so. The team rode amazingly and I'm really happy to take the win and pay the guys back. It's a very stage win,  the guys did amazingly and thankyou to the whole team."

Regarding his attack on the San Giacomo, Vingegaard said:
"So we planned that we wanted to go full gas on the climb, the plan was  Ben [Tulett] had to take over from Atila [Valter] and first Dylan [Van Baarle] and Steven [Kruijswijk] had to pull the whole day, which they did amazingly. The plan went perfectly and I was lucky to be able to go solo."

As for his victory gesture on the finsh line and if kissing his wedding ring was his way of celebrating International Womens' Day, Vingegaard said he didn't know it was that day and apologized for that. But he added that "I get all the support from my wife, and she's always there for me, so it is also the way of supporting her. I'm really happy everything she does for me and it's really special."

The full Cyclingnews report on stage 5 of Tirreno-Adriatico is here, complete with a race gallery, results and more analysis of today's dramatic events.

Tirreno-Adriatico: Late-race mountain attack secures Jonas Vingegaard stage 5 victory

In terms of the secondary rankings, Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) may have lost the overall lead, but he remains in control of the points ranking. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike) is now in charge of the mountains classification, while Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) is back in white (having lost it for a day to Milan) as Tirreno's Best Young Rider.

And what's on for tomorrow at Tirreno-Adriatico?

Although Jonas Vingegaard's stage 5 solo mountain attack to seize the win and lead has established the Visma-Lease A Bike rider as the dominating force in this year's Tirreno, Saturday’s stage 6 from Sassoferrato to Monte Petrano remains - on paper - the crunch day.

180 kilometres long, and with 3,544 metres of vertical climbing, a series of rolling approach roads precedes a very tough final hour of racing, culminating in the 2024 race's one full-on summit finish.

It's true that the classified 2.4 kilometre ascent of Moria at km 151, could well see a bit of action. But the final 10.2 kilometre Monte Petrano represents the real challenge.

Averaging 7.9 % and more a steady grind than overly steep, with Sunday’s final, completely flat, stage of Tirreno-Adriatico likely to come down to a bunch sprint, whoever is the GC leader at the summit of Monte Petrano will almost certainly be the outright winner 24 hours later.

A shot of Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) outsprinting Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) for second.

And here's a final shot of Jonas Vingegaard celebrating as the new race leader, secured in what was his biggest triumph to date in 2024 and one which will resound far beyond the Italian frontiers.

And that wraps it up from Cyclingnews live coverage of stage 5 of Tirreno-Adriatico. We'll be back on Saturday with more of the same, though, from the second key mountain stage in as many days. Meantime there'll be analysis, interviews, news and further race updates coming through this evening on the website.