Vincenzo Nibali and Trek-Segafredo pushed as hard as they could on the tough final climb of stage 5 of the Giro d'Italia.

The first category, the slopes of Valrico Montescuro, proved too gentle and stable for attacks and shed-downs to gain traction, despite their length, Nibali said.

Midway up the monstrous Calabria climb, as the road steepened to 12% outside the San Francisco sanctuary and 18% on shorter sections, a group of Trek-Segafredo riders led by Giulio Ciccone and Gianluca Brambilla set the pace at the front of the pack.

However, once the gradient of the road slowed again, especially on the long, steady climb to the summit, the peloton remained stubbornly around 30-40 riders almost to the top, despite Trek-Segafredo's hard work.

"As expected, it was a very specific and tricky stage. It required a lot of concentration, especially on the last stage, and even more so on the last stage," Nibali, who is now fifth overall and 1:01 behind leader Joan Almeida (Deceuninck-Quick Step), said after the race. 9]

"As a team, we decided to try to set the pace on the last climb, but we understood that we had no real choice. I understood that I had no real choice."

"I was very happy with the result,"

Nibali said after the race.

Domenico Pozzovivo's (NTT) last gasp on the summit resulted in a split in the main group that lasted only moments, although Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) was slowed.

Nibali followed Trek-Segafredo on his trademark fast, well-honed descent from the climb to Camigliatello Silano.

Despite his speed, the downhill was not as technical as the temporary gaps that opened up. In fact, some climbers, like Yates, managed to escape less than a minute from the lone winner, Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), before the lead group hit the finish town.

Nibali said he had no intention of dropping his rival from Valrico Montescuolo.

"On the descent, my priority was to get to the front as a precaution. I didn't know how dangerous the slippery asphalt would be and I wanted to avoid any risk," he later explained.

Trek-Segafredo's attitude on the climb might be seen by some as assuming, consciously or not, that Nibali was now the leading contender for the overall win. But on a day when little concrete progress was made on GC, even if it was a step in the right direction for Nibali's team, they also suffered a realistic setback for their key teammate, Pieter Weening.

Weening, a former Giro leader and stage winner, exited the stage suffering from "mild vertigo." Weening had crashed the day after receiving a bidon from a roadside soigneur, and the team chose to abandon him as a precaution.

"Weening's retirement is a tough loss, but I'm glad we were able to finish a dangerous stage without any problems," Nibali admitted. And while, as he said, surviving the wet and uncomfortably long fifth stage was undoubtedly beneficial for the Italian GC contender, Weening's absence will certainly be felt, especially when the Giro returns to the mountain stages beginning next Sunday in Locarasso.