Giro d'Italia 2023 Stage 5 recap: Remco Evenepoel hits the deck twice as Kaden Groves wins chaotic sprint

It's another miserable day in Campania with the rain lashing down something rotten as the riders make their way through the neutral zone. "These are horrible conditions - nobody's looking forward to this," says Sean Kelly in the comms box. One saving grace is that it's not too cold: 15 degrees Celsius means Remco Evenepoel isn't wearing leg warmers today.

But the world champion has waited four days to show off his rainbow bands... and now the chance has come, they're hidden beneath a black jacket. The Belgian was in a regulation Soudal skinsuit for the opening TT and then the maglia rosa for the next three stages. He would be in Leknessund's white jersey today but his rainbow jersey takes precedence, ditto Joao Almedia's Portuguese national champion's jersey. So it's fourth place Thymen Arensman who is in white.

I spoke to Norwegian journalist Jarle Fredagsvik of Landevei.no about the new pink jersey this morning, and he told me about the 23-year-old's strengths, potential, and ability to hold things together in adversity.

"Andreas Leknessund is a mentality monster. He's been hit with several tragedies close to him the recent years (his father got brain cancer and passed away in 2019), and he has dug deep and risen to the occasion several times.

"Going into last year's Tour de Suisse he was described as "stagnated" by Emil Axelgaard at feltet.dk (a Danish website), but he won a stage there, and was also fabulous in his Tour de France debut, attacking in the Pyrenees, and waiting up - helping Romain Bardet getting time back in the GC, after being passed by only Pogacar, Vingegaard and McNulty on the climb.

"He also did an awesome long range attack in the last stage of Arctic Race of Norway last August, and held off the whole peloton to secure the overall win in Trondheim. He's still 23, still developing - but has a great future waiting for him."

Andreas Leknessund became the first Norwegian in 42 years - and only the second in history - to don the maglia rosa yesterday. That alone would have been reason enough for the 23-year-old to get emotional. But it was also revealed yesterday that the Team DSM leader had recently lost a person in close connection to his family - a loss which, at one point, jeopardised his presence on the race.

After he withdrew from the Tour of the Alps while coming to terms with the loss, he told the Norwegian website Landevei.no that he considered skipping the Giro as well. "There were moments where it wasn't very tempting to go to Italy, but I also had a feeling it could be good for me. Neither solution had been totally right, anyways. I ended up going, and it feels right now," he said.

If we had a taste of the inclement weather yesterday, then things are not going to get much better for the riders out there today. Here's a video made by the EOLO-Kometa team on their way to the start today. Wet, wet, wet...

1. Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM)
2. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) +28
3. Aurelien Paret-Peintre (AG2R Citroen) +30
4. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +1:00
5. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) +1:12
6. Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) +1:26
7. Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora Hansgrohe) +1:26
8. Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo) +1:29
9. Tao Geoghegen Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) +1:30
10. Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) +1:36

By way of comparison, the maglia nera - of black jersey - is Max Kanter (Movistar) who is 175th place in the standings at 48:20.

The lumpy opening three-quarters of today's stage could play into the hands of a breakaway - although the team's of the sprinters will be on red alert to ensure things come back together to give their fast men a chance of victory. It's a flat run into the line for the last 40km and this could be a chance for Mads Pedersen to get that elusive Giro win - or for Michael Matthews or Jonathan Milan to double up...

Time will tell. But on Tuesday the Belgian world champion was left isolated by his rivals and conceded the race lead. Evenepoel - who wore leg warmers for the majoriity of the stage - finished in the middle of a 24-man chase group and alongside his main GC rivals Primoz Roglic and Geraint Thomas.

But with his closest team-mate – Louis Vervaeke – finishing almost two minutes further behind, questions will have been asked regarding Soudal Quick-Step’s ability to give their leader the support he needs in his quest to add the Giro to the Vuelta crown he assumed last September.

Pink was a nice consolation to Leknessund on a day that the stage spoils went to Aurelien Paret-Peintre of AG2R Citroen. The Frenchman was dropped by his Norwegian rival on the climb to Colle Molella but managed to claw his way back before the summit. The pair exchanged a few words on the short descent before Leknessund buried himself on the home straight, with Paret-Peintre able to kick clear from his back wheel to take the biggest win of his career.

Ciao ragazzi! And welcome to live coverage of the fifth stage of this intriguing Giro d'Italia. Yesterday, world champion Remco Evenepoel tactically conceded the pink jersey to Norway's Andreas Leknessund, who missed out on the win in a two-up sprint against breakaway companion Aurelien Paret-Peintre in Lago Laceno.