Mads Pedersen ceded pink to Primoz Roglic after stage two’s time trial but was resplendent in the Giro d’Italia leader’s jersey once more to double up on sprint victories.
The Lidl-Trek rider became the first Dane to wear pink to victory and took the honours again at the end of a 160km run to Vlore on Sunday.
He secured a hat-trick of stage wins – and a first in the maglia rosa – with victory on stage five and picked up 10 bonus seconds at the day’s intermediate sprints.
The 29-year-old now leads the general classification by 17 seconds ahead of Primoz Roglic, the overall race favourite, with Pedersen’s teammate – and leader of the best young rider standings – Mathias Vacek rounding out the podium, 24 seconds off the lead.
Stage five results
1) Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), in 3:27:31
2) Edoardo Zambanini (Bahrain – Victorious)
3) Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team)
4) Orluis Aular (Movistar)
5) Filippo Fiorelli (VF Group – Bardiani CSF – Faizane)
6) Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling
7) Quentin Pacher (Groupama – FDJ)
8) Brandon Smith Rivera (INEOS Grenadiers)
9) Damiano Caruso (Bahrain – Victorious)
10) Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates – XRG), all at same time
General classification
1) Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), in 15:11:52
2) Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +17″
3) Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) +24″
4) Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +31″
5) Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +32″
6) Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +35″
7) Max Poole (Team Picnic PostNL)+43″
8) Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) +44″
9) Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) +46″
10) Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +50″
Points classification
1) Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) 139pts
2) Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) 52
3) Casper van Uden (Picnic PostNL) 50
4) Orluis Aular (Movistar) 43
5) Edoardo Zambanini (Bahrain Victorious) 41
King of the mountains (KOM) classification
1) Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana) 29pts
2) Sylvain Moniquet (Cofidis) 20
3) Pello Bilbao (Movistar) 12
4) Alessandro Tonelli (Polti VisitMalta) 11
5) Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) 9
Young riders’ classification
1) Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek), in 15:12:16
2) Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +8″
3) Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +11″
4) Max Poole (Team Picnic PostNL)+19″
5) Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) +20″