Giro leader Pedersen sprints to another stage victory
May 14 (Reuters) - Mads Pedersen continued his domination of sprint finishes at the Giro d'Italia by narrowly winning stage five on Wednesday, his third stage victory of this year's race which extended the Danish rider's overall lead.
At the end of the 151km ride from Ceglie Messapica to Matera, Pedersen appeared to struggle with the pace on the climb to the finish, but recovered before starting his dash to the line early, just managing to hold off his challengers.
Italian Edoardo Zambanini (Bahrain Victorious) almost caught the Lidl-Trek man on the line but had to settle for second place, ahead of Britain's Tom Pidcock (Q36.5).
"I wasn't sure at all if I had won," Pedersen said.
"Three wins in five stages and winning with the pink jersey is insane."
An Italian trio of Giosue Epis, Davide Bais and Lorenzo Milesi broke away just after the start, and after Epis was dropped later on, his two compatriots had their brave bid for glory ended with just 13 kilometres remaining.
The bunch had earlier upped the pace on the Montescaglioso climb, with plenty of riders dropping out the back of the peloton, and with more climbing towards the race finale, Pedersen's win looked at risk.
"It was incredibly hard in the last 20km. I suffered a lot. This was a really tough one," Pedersen said.
Race favourite Primoz Roglic (Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe) hit the front with just over two kilometres to the finish, but while Pedersen initially struggled, the Slovenian was unable to shake off the chasing pack.
Once again, Pedersen's teammate Mathias Vacek gave him the perfect lead out, and after his Czech colleague dropped off the front, Pedersen went early and his gamble paid off despite Zambanini almost catching him on the line.
"Over the top of the last climb I was a bit behind. I was still in the group fighting for the win but I had a very hard time there," Pedersen said.
"I used a lot of energy to move back onto Vacek's wheel. Luckily I had enough for the last sprint."
Pedersen has committed his future to Lidl-Trek, with the 29-year-old announcing on Wednesday that he will remain with the team for the rest of his career.
The 10-second bonus for the win stretched Pedersen's lead to 17 seconds over Roglic, with Vacek a further seven seconds back in third ahead of Thursday's stage six, a 227-km ride from Potenza to Naples.
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