‘It’s fuel for tomorrow’ – Mark Cavendish ‘proud’ despite failed chase on Stage 5 at Giro d’Italia

Mark Cavendish spoke of how “proud” he was of his Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl colleagues despite their forlorn chase on Stage 5 at the Giro d’Italia. Cavendish was distanced on the Cat. 2 Portella Mandrazzi climb midway through Wednesday’s run from Catania to Messina along with Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) and Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal).

Ad/> The Manx Missile and five team-mates gamely tried to overturn a three-minute gap on the peloton but eventually abandoned the chase with 50km remaining. Giro d'ItaliaGroupama-FDJ propel Demare to thrilling victory on Stage 5 as Cavendish dropped4 HOURS AGO Meanwhile, Demare managed to latch back on and profited from a superb lead-out to take a commanding sprint win ahead of Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Israel-Premier Tech). But Cavendish insisted that he never expected to be in the bunch sprint, instead calling it a “bonus” that did not transpire.

“What can you do? You’ve just got to try,” said Cavendish before boarding a ferry across the Strait of Messina to the Italian mainland. “We were like 30 seconds behind Groupama-FDJ and Caleb was behind us. Ironically, if all of us were together we would probably get back.

“It’s just how it is. We had to give everything, the boys did everything, I’m so proud. In the end it’s alright, we tried.” He added: “You’re always disappointed [at not winning] but we knew that was going to happen today.

It was a bonus if we could sprint today. But we had to try. We’ll try again.” Cavendish, who has 16 wins at the Giro to his name, will have a chance to atone on Thursday with a flatter run from Palmi to Scalea on the menu on the Italian mainland.