Tirreno-Adriatico stage 5 Live - An attacking race is expected on this hilly stage

Puncture

Jan Maas (Cofidis)

The mechanic brought the wrong wheel at first then gets the right wheel but took a very long time and is well out of the back now. That was a very poor change by Cofidis. 

50km to go

Domen Novak (UAE Team Emiates-XRG) doing a lot of the work on the front of the peloton. The gap up to the break is now down to 4'34" between the peloton and the breakaway. 

Intermediate sprint (Barbara)

1. Xandro Meurisse (BEL) Alpecin-Deceuninck 5pts 3"
2. Manuele Tarozzi (ITA) VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane 3pts 2"
3. Fredrik Dversnes (NOR) Uno-X Mobility 2pts 1"
4. Dries De Bondt (BEL) Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale 1pt

60km to go

The peloton has reduced the gap to the break to under five minutes. Quite a lot of riders losing touch as Francisco Muñoz (Polti-VisitMalta) is caught by the peloton. 

Connor Swift is pushing very very hard on the front of the peloton. It looks like they are trying to split the race in the strong winds and twisty undulating roads. 

Pelayo Sanchez (Movistar) and Valentin Ferron (Cofidis) both lose touch with the peloton. Two riders expected to be involved at the pointy end today. Clearly not on good days. 

70km to go

Ineos Grenadiers come back to the front with Lucas Hamilton doing the majority of the work. 10km to the intermediate sprint in Barbara. Over 40km to the next KoM.

Several riders struggling to stay in the peloton. Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) all at the back. 

Bahrain Victorious hit the front of the peloton and dramatically up the pace. On the Santa Marciana the peloton took over a minute out of the break with the gap now at 5'37". 

Dropped from peloton

Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla)
Alessandro Verre (Arkea-B&B Hotels)

It is going to be a very long day for them.

KoM (Santa Marciana)

1. Manuele Tarozzi (ITA) VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane 5pts
2. Paul Ourselin (FRA) Cofidis 3pts
3. Fredrik Dversnes (NOR) Uno-X Mobility 2pts
4. Xandro Meurisse (BEL) Alpecin-Deceuninck 1pt

Francisco Muñoz (Polti-VisitMalta) dropped from break.

Several teams come to the front of the peloton as the fight for position to get to the bottom of the Santa Marciana begins. 

80km to go

Onto the first categorised climb of the day The Santa Marciana. 4.4km with an average of 6.1% with a maxi heading up to 14%.

Gianluca Brambilla (Q36.5), Domen Novak (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Salvatore Puccio (Ineos Grenadiers) are doing the majority of the work in the peloton with 90km to go. The gap up to the break is at 6'39".

100km to go

The gap is over six and a half minutes to the breakaway as the riders go over the halfway point today. The peloton is still being led by the trio of teams, Ineos Grenadiers, Q36.5 and UAE Team Emirates-XRG. 

A new time gap between the break and peloton is now over six minutes! The leading group of seven are pushing hard to stay away. 

120km to go

The pace has gone up to an average speed of 40kph with both the breakaway and peloton battling for the stage. Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane) in particular will want this break to at least make it to the first categorised climb which is now just over 40km away. 

Almost immediately after there was an update that the break had reached almost six minutes, the largest gap they've had all day, the gap is updated again and it has dropped to just over five minutes again. 

130km to go

The break have almost six minutes on the peloton now as the race goes over the two hour mark. Average speed has risen a touch to 36.5kph. 

Abandon

Wout Poels (XDS-Astana) has left the race. The Dutchman lost over 13 minutes yesterday and hasn't been near the front of the race throughout. 

His season started strongly with a good seventh place in GC at the Tour of Oman, but hasn't had a good time at this race. 

140km to go

The gap between the chasing peloton led by Ineos Grenadiers, Q36.5 and UAE Team Emirates-XRG and the seven man breakaway is just over five minutes. There is now just 65km until the top of the first categorised climb of the day, the Santa Marciana. 

The breakaway's positions on GC coming into today...

Fredrik Dversnes (Uno-X Mobility) +1'22"
Francisco Muñoz (Polti-VisitMalta) +1'55"
Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane) +15'28"
Gal Glivar (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +16'50"
Paul Ourselin (Cofidis) +19'25"
Dries De Bondt (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +22'32"
Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +24'10"

150km to go

The average speed so far is 34.2kph. They are not pushing the pace at all today after the rapid stage yesterday. 

The time gap to the breakaway is now just under five minutes. 

The seven man break seem to be working well together in the early stages of today.

The gap between the peloton and breakaway has extended to over four minutes. 

Abandon

Rui Costa (EF Education-EasyPost) has left the race. The Portuguese national champion and former world champion was up at the front of the race supporting Ben Healy yesterday. He leaves the race due to knee pain. 

A reminder on who is in the breakaway...

Fredrik Dversnes (Uno-X Mobility)
Francisco Muñoz (Polti-VisitMalta)
Gal Glivar (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane)
Paul Ourselin (Cofidis)
Dries De Bondt (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale)
Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Deceuninck)

170km to go

After an hour of racing the riders have covered 35km. The time gap to the break of seven riders has jumped up to 3'30". 

Ineos Grenadiers are sharing the workload on the front of the peloton with Q36.5 and UAE Team Emirates-XRG. 

The last confirmed time gap up to the breakaway was 3'08". The peloton seem keen to control the gap for the moment. 

The riders will be so thankful to be in short sleeve jerseys and short bibs today after two days wrapped up in multiple layers of winter and rain kit. 

Abandon

Johan Price-Pejtersen (Alpcin-Deceuninck) has left the race. He put in a very strong performance in the opening time trial taking third on the day but has been placed in the hundreds ever since. 

There is still over 110km to the first classified climb of the day, the Santa Marciana.

190km to go

The time gap continues to go out to this strong breakaway. Could this be the day for the break or will the peloton come out on top yet again?

The time gap has now gone over three minutes as the race heads onto the first uncategorised climb of the day up to the village of Croce di Casale. 

Breakaway formed

An update comes through and we have a seven man breakaway holding a gap of 2'42" on the peloton...

Fredrik Dversnes (Uno-X Mobility)
Francisco Muñoz (Polti-VisitMalta)
Gal Glivar (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane)
Paul Ourselin (Cofidis)
Dries De Bondt (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale)
Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Deceuninck)

Attack!

Dries De Bondt (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale)

200km to go

There have been multiple attacks off the front of the peloton. 

There is a 17kph wind today that is expected to almost be entirely a tailwind, so today could be fast. 

The riders will be over the moon this morning (did you see the Lunar Eclipse this morning?) as the sunshine is shining!

205km to go

The official start is given and the racing on stage five of Tirreno-Adriatico has begun. 

Neutral start

The riders have set off in the neutralised zone of the stage. There are 4.4km before the official race start. 

Yesterday saw a all Dutch podium with Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike), Rick Pluimers (Tudor) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alppecin-Deceuninck).

This is the first all Dutch podium in the whole of Tirreno-Adriatico's 60 year history. 

The neutralised start is scheduled to begin in around 10 minutes. 

It was a very hard day for some of the GC rider yesterday with Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) arguably having the worst of days...

>>> 'You feel bad when your own mistake makes your teammates ride that hard' - Derek Gee learns a lesson but stays in Tirreno-Adriatico GC fight 

Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) reveals he aims for Milan-Sanremo after impressive stage win yesterday...

>>>> 'This year I'm feeling even better' - After Tirreno-Adriatico sprint win, Olav Kooij takes aim at Milan-San Remo 

Read all the reaction from yesterday's crosswind action in Tirreno-Adriatico...

>>> Rare Italian echelon racing lights up Tirreno-Adriatico but Olav Kooij and Derek Gee survive the day 

Before looking at today's Tirreno-Adriatico news, the big story out this morning is that Jonas Vinegegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) has abandoned Paris-Nice after crashing yesterday. To read more on the story click the link below...

>>> Jonas Vingegaard will not start stage 6 of Paris-Nice after Thursday's early stage crash 

The likes of Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Tom Pidcock (Q36.5), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) and others must be very excited by today. 

Today's stage goes between Ascoli Piceno and Pergola with a 205km route that tackles several short sharp climbs. A stage that has become a tradition in Tirreno-Adriatico and is known as the Tappa dei Muri, which literally translates as 'Stage of Walls'. 

Hello and welcome to the CyclingNews live report for the fifth stage of Tirreno-Adriatico 2025.