Mads Pedersen wins stage 6 of the Giro d'Italia

The Danish rider of Trek-Segafredo finally achieved the victory that had eluded him in an agonizing finish in which the peloton caught the breakaway just 300 meters from the finish. Mads Pedersen thus becomes a new member of that select club of cyclists who have won a stage victory in all three Grand Tours.

Victory for Mads Pedersen on the day before the first battle between favorites

Today in the Giro d'Italia we experienced the calm before the storm that is expected for tomorrow's day with the finish on the Gran Sasso, the first big date for the contenders for the general classification. In the meantime, the riders had to face a 162 km stage around Naples which, as in the two previous days, offered a broken intermediate part but without any major difficulties beyond two scoring ports, one of second and one of first category. However, the completely flat finish suggested another day for the sprinters, fortunately with milder weather than in recent days.

The start of the stage was more lively because of the stage's suitability for a breakaway. The breakaway of the day was created and consolidated by a cyclist of the stature of Alessandro de Marchi, who was soon joined by Alexandre Delettre (Cofidis), Francesco Gavazzi (Eolo-Kometa), Simon Clarke (Israel-PremierTech) and Charlie Quaterman (Corratec-Selle Italia).

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From there, the usual script of these stages followed, with a peloton that let the riders do nothing except for a few minutes, during the ascent to the first of the passes, the Valico di Chiunzi, where INEOS Grenadiers took the lead of the peloton, accelerating the pace. A move that was not followed up and we are still looking for the meaning of it. Apparently, from the image that would be repeated in several other moments of the stage, only to avoid dangerous situations. In the case of the mountain pass because the descent was wet, although we also saw it in other complicated parts of the stage.

On the second of the climbs, the Pico Sant'Angelo, the breakaway began to attack and as expected, the two best riders, Clarke and de Marchi, were the ones who ended up taking the upper hand and went ahead in pursuit of victory, a real possibility thanks to the advantage that the peloton had allowed them. In fact, with 30 km to go they were still more than 2 minutes ahead, although the approach to the coast forced them to paddle against the intense wind while the peloton began to worry about the quality that was ahead.

Tension in the last 20 kilometers, all of them on urban terrain, with the road surface in quite bad condition, so there were quite a few flat tyres. The escapees were still not giving up, which caused the group to redouble the pace. We even see riders like Geraint Thomas after his chain came off, with his team having to push back to reintegrate it; or Primoz Rogliz who had to change bikes after suffering a breakdown.

With 2 kilometers to go, the escapees still had a little more than 20 seconds, benefiting from the rough terrain through the streets of Naples, in some areas even with cobblestones. In the peloton the pace was already furious but they could not catch them. At the last kilometer both Clarke and De Marchi were still understanding each other perfectly, at which point they began to think about the tactics to win the stage but without losing sight of the peloton that was approaching.

They measured so much that, 300 meters from the finish line, they were caught when Gaviria tried to surprise by launching the sprint from afar. A move that did not work out for the Colombian with a Mads Pedersen who reacted tremendously fast to overtake him with ease and achieve that victory that had been resisting him these days. Second was Jonathan Milan who easily caught the Danish rider's wheel, but was unable to overtake him against the fabulous sprint of the Trek-Segafredo rider.

Stage 6 Classification

1. Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) 3h44’45’’
2. Jonathan Milan (Bahrain-Victorious) 3h44’45’’
3. Pascal Ackermann (UAE-Team Emirates) 3h44’45’’
4. Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 3h44’45’’
5. Fernando Gaviria (Movistar Team) 3h44’45’’
6. Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) 3h44’45’’
7. Vincenzo Albanese (Eolo-Kometa) 3h44’45’’
8. Marius Mayrhofer (Team DSM) 3h44’45’’
9. Lorenzo Rota (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) 3h44’45’’
10. Simone Velasco (Astana Qazaqstan) 3h44’45’’

General Classification

1. Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM) 22h50’48’’
2. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) +28’’
3. Aurélien Paret-Peintre (AG2R Citroën) +30’’
4. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +1’00’’
5. Primoz Rogliz (Jumbo-Visma) +1’12’’
6. Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers) +1’26’’
7. Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) +1’26’’
8. Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo) +1’29’’
9. Tao Geoghegan Haart (INEOS Grenadiers) +1’30’’
10. Vincenzo Albanese +1’39’’