It took until the halfway mark of the Giro d’Italia Donne for the first bunch sprint of the ten-day stage race. CANYON//SRAM Racing tried to deliver its sprinter Alexis Ryan to a stage win but fell short in the final kilometre. Lorena Wiebes (DSM) won the fifth stage in Carugate, ahead of Emma Norsgaard (MOV) and Marianne Vos (JVW).

“Tiff (Cromwell) dropped me off right before the corner, but that was still 800 metres to go. DSM was coming by me with a lot of speed and I couldn’t exactly fight for Wiebes’ wheel since I was going slower than them. I settled for Emma’s wheel in around fifth position but was swarmed on both sides. By that point, I was in a bad position without an opening in sight. Fifteenth is obviously disappointing. I wish I could have done better even with the odds against me,” explained Alexis.

“For the next sprint stage, we’ll need to focus on timing the lead out better and having everyone there to help. Tiff and Alena (Amialiusik) were incredible, but we went too early for only having two lead out riders. If we’d had everyone up at the front it would have been a different ending.”

The sixth stage tomorrow is a picturesque lap around Lake Como, the longest stage of the tour with riders covering 155 kilometres. Alexis predicts stage eight could potentially be another opportunity for herself in a sprint finish and says the team is motivated to keep fighting.

“I think everyone has had their own disappointments up until now, but we’re sticking well together as a team and everyone seems to be in a hopeful mood. We’re all still keen to fight for stages and bring home some flowers!”says Alexis.

Elise Chabbey maintains her lead in the mountain classification and holds down fifth position on the overall behind leader Anna van der Breggen.

The sixth stage from Colico to Colico is due to start at 11:05CEST with broadcasts from 15:15CEST on: GCN+, Eurosport Player, PMGSport YouTube, PMGsport Facebook, TuttoBici, Claro, SBS, NOS, Spark Sport, RaiSport, EBU, SABC Sport and BBC.