Mads Pedersen kept his promise and today conquered the fifth stage of the pink race ending in Matera. The Dane had said yesterday that he wanted to try to win the stage, and so he did: in addition to keeping the pink jersey, he increased his lead in the points classification.

"Winning three stages out of five is something really difficult," Pedersen said in the press conference. "We started with the idea of doing well in Albania and taking the pink jersey, but arriving here with three stages won out of five is something incredible, more than a dream."

Lidl-Trek had shown from the beginning of the Giro that they were one of the strongest teams, with Pedersen for the sprint stages and Ciccone for the mountains. Tomorrow there will be another stage for sprinters, and Pedersen could seek his fourth victory.

"We are all proud of what we have done. As I said in previous days, I'm not a cycling history enthusiast, and these statistics ultimately don't mean much because if there had been a mountain stage, it would have been impossible to achieve such results, so I'm really happy."

The finale towards Matera was quite eventful, and Lidl-Trek could have attempted victory with Vacek, who is currently the leader of the young riders' classification.

"In the last two and a half kilometers when Primoz Roglic made his move, we realized that Vacek was also feeling good and could win the stage. I was suffering and thought he deserved a chance, given the form he has shown these days, but he was very selfless and intelligent. On the flat, he slowed down the group and I was able to catch up, then he did an incredible lead out. Those were three crazy kilometers, and this victory is a great sign of unity and team spirit."

Lidl-Trek has grown significantly, both in the men's and women's teams, and is one of the strongest teams in the world.
"Compared to previous years, we haven't changed our preparation much. I perhaps worked a bit more this winter. We tried to do specific training blocks to stay in shape longer."

The Giro d'Italia is an important race, and Lidl-Trek started with the intention of getting off to a good start, trying to win the pink jersey in Albania.
"We had the pink jersey as our goal, so after the classics, we started working with this in mind. We thought I might struggle in the second part of the Giro, so it's better to accumulate victories and points now, including for the points classification. Primoz's attack today wasn't strange because, like me, he wants to win. We're here to race, and it's normal that if he had attacked, maybe 10 or 15 classification riders would have gone, and he would have been the fastest, and I would have done the same."

An extremely important person at Lidl-Trek is Luca Guercilena, the team's general manager, who was away from racing for a period due to illness. Fortunately, everything seems resolved now, and the Lombard has returned to lead the team. "Luca Guercilena has been a very important person for my career, he gave me confidence since 2016 when I was riding in a Continental team. He signed me and brought me to the World Tour and always told me I would become a big name, so I can never thank him enough. He always told me to stay calm, that my moment would come. He was a key person, and I'm proud to have worked with him and to continue working with him until the end of my career."

Today's sprint was extremely uncertain: "I know Edoardo Zambanini very well, I didn't think he was so fast in a reduced sprint. If you can stay in such a group at the end, it means you're strong, and we should be careful with him in the coming years. When I lost positions on the steepest part of the final climb, I thought it would be difficult to catch up. However, I thought not only about winning the stage but also about trying to position myself. If I couldn't fight for the victory, I wanted to score as many points as possible for the points jersey."