Jonas Vingegaard storms to Stage 5 victory at Tirreno-Adriatico, Chris Froome withdraws due to injury

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) produced a dominant display to win Stage 5 of Tirreno-Adriatico as he took the overall lead.

Spain’s Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) emerged victorious from a six-strong battle behind to take second spot and bonus seconds, ahead of Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe), but the day was all about two-time Tour de France champion Vingegaard.

Vingegaard takes the leader’s jersey from Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), who was always expected to relinquish control when the race headed uphill, and is 54 seconds clear of second-placed Ayuso.

Meanwhile, Chris Froome (Israel-Premier Tech) was forced to abandon the race before Stage 5 began due to a fractured wrist sustained in a crash on Stage 2.

The 38-year-old wrote on X: “Confirmed last night that I fractured my scaphoid on Stage 2 so I won’t continue today.

“Heading home for surgery. I can’t catch a break.”

Vingegaard was the overwhelming favourite heading into the seven-stage race in Italy – and after the opening stages were dominated by the sprinters, the Dane finally took control as the peloton travelled from Torricella Sicura to Valle Castellana.

With 28km of the 144km stage to go, Vingegaard went on the attack on ascent of the San Giacomo ahead of Ben O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R) and Hindley to create a healthy lead before crossing the summit.

On the descent, Vingegaard pulled further ahead to create a big gap ahead of the chasing pack.

After successfully seeing off a shallow ascent with 8km left, Vingegaard built a gap of over a minute heading into the final 4km and comfortably held off the pursuers to land an impressive win.