Tirreno-Adriatico 2025 Stage 5

March 14, 2025 It's another long and tough day in the saddle in the Marche from Ascoli Piceno, traveling North to Pergola. The 205KM route takes the riders across constantly undulating roads, similar to an Ardennes style parcours. None of the climbing is longer than around 7KM and most of which is less than 4KM long but it adds up to over 3,500M by the finish. The finale really kicks off when they enter Pergola with 34KM to go with the 6KM climb of Salita Di Barbanti. After the descent, the road drags up from Isola di Fano to the start of the last climb of Monterolo, a 4KM climb averaging 6.6% with the steepest sections in the middle of 10%. The last 7.5KM is a descent which takes the riders to the finish line back in Pergola. The sun finally came out and very few arm warmers were present in the peloton at the start. A strong group of seven formed including Fredrik Dversnes of Uno-X Mobility, Francisco Muñoz of Polti-VisitMalta, Manuele Tarozzi of VF-Group Bardiani CSF-Faizanè, Paul Ourselin of Cofidis, Dries De Bondt of Decathlon AG2R, and Gal Glivar and Xandro Meurisse of Alpecin-Deceuninck. They had a good lead of 6 minutes but still had 107KM to race. UAE-XRG and Ineos brought a few riders to the front for the chase from the peloton but with 81KM to go at the start of the Santa Marciana climb, the gap had grown to 6 minutes 30 seconds. Muñoz was dropped on the climb but the break retained 5 minutes 30 seconds over top and down the descent with 68KM to go. Ineos brought more firepower to the chase, as did Bahrain Victorious and UAE-XRG. Their extra work had the gap to 4 minutes with 48KM to go. Meurisse was dropped by an acceleration from De Bondt but the remaining five riders in the break started the Salita Di Barbanti with 3 minutes 10 seconds and 34KM to go. In the bunch, teams were jostling for position for the Salita Di Barbanti and a swing across the road caused a ripple and eventually a touch of wheels. Jayco AlUla's GC hope, Eddie Dunbar, went down and did not get back on his bike, abandoning the stage. With 2KM to climb on the Salita Di Barbanti, Chris Hamilton of Picnic-PostNL attacked from the peloton and was quickly joined by Nicolas Prodhomme of Decathlon AG2R. When the peloton reached Isola di Fano, they had Prodhomme and Hamilton within touching distance but the break were still holding 1 minute 15 seconds. On the final climb of the Monterolo, Esteban Chaves of EF-Education EasyPost went on the attack but UAE-XRG were massed at the front of the peloton which still was at least 60 riders strong. Chaves was brought back and immediately countered by Nairo Quintana of Movistar on the steepest slopes of the climb but he only managed to stay away for 500M before being caught. Dversnes was the last one from the break and went solo over the top with 7.5KM to go with a gap of 25 seconds. The peloton trimmed down a bit but still had about 35 riders within it when they crested. The group split on the descent with fewer than 20 riders at the bottom. With 3KM to go, attacks started flying which ultimately only slowed down the group. All the while, Dversnes was dangling out front. He kept his down and, with no organized chase, managed to take the win from the early break. Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin-Deceuninck led the group in for second place with Roger Adrià of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe sprinting for third. Ben Healy of EF-Education EasyPost was the only real GC casualty. He started the day in ninth place at 48 seconds but could not follow on the Monterolo and now sits 37th at 2 minutes 24 seconds.