Israel Start-Up Nation and Alessandro De Marchi had no problems keeping the pink leader’s jersey on the flat stage 5 of Giro d’Italia. Davide Cimolai finished in 10th place on the day.

Today’s stage was a historic day for ISN, riding in the leader’s jersey in a Grand Tour for the first time in the history of the team.

With a flat profile without a single KOM sprint, stage 5 was always going to be a day for the sprinters. Therefore, De Marchi also had plenty of time to enjoy his pink dream coming true with a relatively easy start to the stage.

Towards the end, the bunch became more stressed which resulted in a few bad crashes on the final kilometers. Luckily, the ISN guys stayed out of the trouble, keeping De Marchi and team leader Dan Martin safe towards the end. In the final sprint, Cimolai got in the mix but ended up being boxed in and had to settle for 10th place.

Looking at the general classification, De Marchi now enjoys a 42-second lead over second-place ahead of tomorrow’s difficult mountain stage to Ascoli Piceno (San Giacomo).

Alessandro De Marchi: “Today was a very emotional day for me. It was beautiful to ride in the peloton in the pink jersey and I got to enjoy an easy day for the first part of the stage. Towards the end, it got more hectic but we managed to stay out of trouble and finish the stage safely. Now, we look forward to tomorrow and see what we can do.”