Caleb Ewan won the fifth stage of the Giro d'Italia on Wednesday in a sprint finish as Italy's Alessandro De Marchi kept hold of the overall lead. Lotto rider Ewan overtook Giacomo Nizzolo to triumph in the final metres of a flat, initially uneventful stage that was suddenly hit by crashes as the race came to its climax in Cattolica on the Adriatic coast. Elia Viviani and Peter Sagan followed behind in a bunch finish "The goal to start with was one win. I've done that and I'm pretty hungry to win as much as I can," said Ewan. "This is good confidence for the team and myself going forward and we'll give the next few sprint stages a good shot as well." The most notable of the crash victims was Spaniard Mikel Landa, considered one of the potential contenders for overall victory, who fell heavily in the last five kilometres of the 177km ride from Modena. He was stretchered off the road by a medical team after colliding into Tuesday's stage winner Joe Dombrowski, who fell into the peloton after hitting a traffic island. Thursday's sixth stage is a 160km run from Grotte di Frasassi to Ascoli Piceno. jm-td/nr