The first sign of a difficult, uphill finish at the 97th edition of the Giro d’Italia was enough to get the GC men to come out to play.

Maglia rosa contenders, including Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Cadel Evans (BMC Racing), fired a series of warning shots to their rivals on the final climb of the Viggiano – though most stayed safely in the leading group.

Despite Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) denying him the stage win he had targeted, the man currently in possession of the pink jersey, Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE), has no intention of relinquishing it just yet. The Australian showed he has the climbing legs to compete on stages such as the Viggiano and stayed with the front group to finish sixth on the stage.

But what did we learn from stage five of the Giro d’Italia? Read on for our five observations or add you own in the forum.