Overall leaders Tadej Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates), Remco Evenpole (Quick Step-Alfa Vinyl), and Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) were in the dramatic finale of the Tirreno-Adriatico stage 5, the day's final They went off course on the climb.

The trio had attacked together but failed to notice the right-hand curve with 6 km to go. Instead, they continued straight on and went off route.

Evenepaul led the trio, who had closed the gap to the lead group, through the corners at breakneck speed.

On the left side of the road, several course marshals in bright yellow vests waved to the riders in the last few seconds as they passed. However, the course markers guiding the racers seemed to have limited visibility.

"There was a little arrow pointing right, but everyone missed it.

Evenepoel, along with Pogachar and Vingegaard, accelerated on the final climb and passed Gianluca Brambilla (Trek-Segafredo) from the breakaway group. The Italian, who was at the tail end of the group, found the turn and stayed on course.

Evenpoel was leading at that point and was the last to stop and turn around. Pogachar quickly returned to the lead, as did Vingegaard, but Evenpoel pulled away and was soon 20 seconds behind.

Evenepoel tried desperately to recover, and with the help of teammate Davide Ballerini, managed to make up ground on the short final climb.

From there, he caught up with Pogachar and Vingegaard on the double-digit gradient to Fermo and maintained the status quo, but shook his head as he crossed the line.

Pogachar finished sixth, 28 seconds behind stage winner Warren Barguil (Arkea-Samsic), Vingegaard seventh, and Evenpole ninth.

"I'm a little disappointed because I missed a turn and it could have been a different result, but my ultimate goal was to keep the leader's jersey," Pogachar said.

"It was a really strong breakaway up front and the team did a great job to close the distance as much as possible.