Australian cycling great Robbie McEwen has hailed the astonishing finale to the fifth stage of the Giro d'Italia as a "thing of legend" as Spain's Igor Arrieta pulled off a truly memorable victory.
The rider from the luckless UAE Team Emirates team looked set to join their tale of woe on Wednesday as he fell in the wet when well set for victory, then took the wrong turn in a two-way split in the road on the descent after he'd caught back up with his lone breakaway opponent, Portugal's Afonso Eulalio, with 2.3km left.
But Arrieta extricated himself from the red tape that had got caught up with his bike when he'd taken the wrong fork, turned his bike around to get back on the course, banged his handlebars in frustration and, despite nearly slipping off again, set off in a furious pursuit of Eulalio.
The Portuguese, who'd earlier had a debilitating fall of his own, began to tire desperately and Arrieta caught his exhausted opponent with just over 100 metres to the line.
There was substantial consolation for Bahrain Victorious's Eulalio, though, as his second place earned him the maglia rosa leader's jersey.
McEwen, watching in the Eurosport studio, was enthralled by the drama, saying: "This stage is going to be a thing of legend. It won't be just one for cycling media or cycling channels. This will be one that goes worldwide. It just was nuts, so crazy."
It had been a trying day for both the top two as they suffered spills on the roads made greasy on the 203km slog by heavy rain between Praia a Mare and Potenza in southern Italy.
Arrieta had first fallen 13.5 km from the end of a cold, wet miserable day, and looked set to be another hard luck story for the team who've already lost three riders from a second-day crash, including Australian star Jay Vine.
But Arrieta felt it had been a victory for his perseverance. "I was completely empty after the hard stage, but so was Eulalio," he said.
"I kept pushing and when I got his wheel I knew he couldn't go faster than me and thought I could win the stage."
Italian Giulio Ciccone had begun in the pink jersey, but Eulalio ended up taking it to lead by a substantial 2min 51 seconds overall from Arrieta, with Italian Christian Scaroni 3:34 back in third.
Race favourite Jonas Vingegaard is 6:22 down back in 15th, but looks to be saving himself for the major mountain action later in the week, as do the two top Australians, Jai Hindley and Ben O'Connor, who are on the same time.
