Manuele Tarozzi took on the challenge in the fifth stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico, the 205 km Ascoli Piceno – Pergola. The rider from Faenza joined the breakaway that formed after just a few kilometers, with seven riders in the lead. The only Italian representative in the group was Manuele Tarozzi, who claimed the first two GPMs, thus strengthening his lead in the mountain classification with 32 points. Tarozzi was one of the last attackers to be caught by the peloton, just 500 meters from the final climb summit.

Here’s what he had to say: “Today was really tough. I had two main objectives: to gain points in the GPMs and try to aim for the win, hoping the breakaway would make it to the finish. From the start, there was good cooperation with the other breakaway riders because we knew we had a good chance of succeeding. In fact, Dversnes dropped me 500 meters from the GPM. I’m still happy with what I did. Tomorrow I’ll try to manage myself better since I spent a lot of energy today, and I’ll try to recover as much as possible.”

CLIMBER CLASSIFICATION – TIRRENO ADRIATICO:
1. Manuele Tarozzi VF Group Bardiani-CSF Faizanè 32pt
2. Davide Bais –  Polti VisitMalta 11pt
3. Richard Carapaz – EF Education Easypost 10pt