Novi Ligure, 13 May: The hero of the today's 162 km stage from Novara to Novi Ligure was Japanese rider Yuyika Arashiro (Bbox) who was in the 144 km breakaway that made it all the way to the finish line. With 5km to go it looked like the peloton was going to catch the escapees but Arashiro upped the pace. With about 500m to go it appeared that the sprinters' teams had Arashiro and his two companions in the crosshairs. However, Arashiro started his sprint and simultaneously, at the decisive moment, the sprinters thought more to mark each other than to launch their sprints. Arashiro dragged Jerome Pineau (Quickstep) and Julien Fouchard (Cofidis) to the finish line but couldn't hold on for the win. The stage win went to Pineau, Fouchard was 2nd, and Arashiro 3rd.
Liquigas-Doimo's Vincenzo Nibali held onto the maglia rosa with the same 13 second gap over his teammate Ivan Basso, and teammate Agnoli remains in 3rd.
Top 10 GC after stage 5:
1 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo 14:30:03
2 Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo -0:00:13
3 Valerio Agnoli (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo 0:00:20
4 Matthew Goss (Aus) Team HTC - Columbia 0:00:26
5 Andre Greipel (Ger) Team HTC - Columbia
6 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Astana 0:00:33
7 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Team Katusha 0:00:39
8 Richie Porte (Aus) Team Saxo Bank 0:00:45
9 David Millar (GBr) Garmin - Transitions
10 Paolo Tiralongo (Ita) Astana 0:00:59
The course today passed in front of the "Museo dei Campionissimi", dedicated to Coppi and Girardengo, in Novi Ligure.
More information about the museum here.Photos (by Bettini): Yuyika Arashiro (Bbox); the three man break barely survives
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This stage was a great PR video for our Paradise in Piedmont tour. We ride many of the great roads shown there (and one of the ugly ones!) through Gavi and Novi Ligure. We visit the wonderful Museum of Champions as well as Castellania and our friend Piero Coppi (first cousin of the famous brothers) We have a couple of places available if you can act quickly! It was great to see a breakaway succeed even if the winner WAS French!
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