Kaden Groves wins chaotic Giro stage five, Eddie Dunbar is 20th and Andreas Leknessund retains lead

Kaden Groves won a damp, chaotic stage five of the Giro d'Italia on a crash-strewn day during which overall favourite Remco Evenepoel was almost taken out of the race by a stray dog and Mark Cavendish slid across the finish line on his backside to take fourth place.

Evenepoel, who relinquished the leader’s pink jersey on Tuesday, hit the deck twice on a bruising day for the world champion; once when a stray dog almost ran into the peloton early in the day, then again inside the final three kilometres in what proved to be a dangerous finish.

That second fall for the Belgian came in one of three crashes to hit the peloton in the final seven kilometres of the stage from Atripalda to Salerno.

Evenepoel’s main rival, Primoz Roglic, and race leader, Andreas Leknessund, were among those held up when several riders fell as they turned on to the seafront seven kilometres from the finish.

Evenepoel’s Soudal-QuickStep squad and the Ineos Grenadiers avoided the trouble but did not seem keen to take advantage, slowing the pace in the front group as others got back on but more trouble followed, with Evenepoel taken out when several riders went down again with a little over 1500 metres remaining.

That left a reduced sprint up front but there was still more drama to come.

Cavendish came off the power after his wheel slipped when he launched his move, but as he struggled to stay upright Alberto Dainese cut across him, and he then struck Filippo Fiorelli against the barriers, before going down sliding across the line for one of the stranger top-fives of his career.

As Cavendish went careering across the road, he then hit Andrea Vendrame after the line. The Manxman slid across the line in fifth, but was later upgraded as Dainese was relegated by