The rain marks stage 6 of the Giro d'Italia in which Kaden Groves won an atypical sprint

Once again, the controversy over the measures to be taken in certain weather conditions is back in the spotlight in cycling after the 6th stage of the Giro d'Italia had to be neutralized following a very large crash, and the organizer decided that times and points would not be counted for the different classifications, leaving only the winner of the stage to be determined.

Kaden Groves wins the rainy sixth stage of the Giro d'Italia

Rain made an appearance in the 6th stage of the Giro d'Italia, the longest of the current 2025 edition, which connected the cities of Potenza and Naples on a hilly route in its initial part, including a 2nd category mountain pass and a 3rd category one.

A day of 227 kilometers designed for cyclists to accumulate fatigue ahead of the first mountain stage that will take place tomorrow with the arrival of the first uphill finish. The day began with just three brave riders venturing into the daily adventure: Enzo Pelni, Taco van der Hoorn, and the mountain leader, Lorenzo Fortunato, the latter with the sole objective of leading the second pass to continue consolidating the blue jersey. In fact, after achieving this, he would drop back to shelter in the peloton.

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Despite the weather forecasts, the stage was progressing calmly with not too heavy rain. However, anyone who has ridden a bike in Italy knows the general state of conventional roads, which often leave much to be desired. And at 69 kilometers per hour, on a straight section with no difficulty, a huge pile-up occurred when Jai Hindley made a sudden move with one of his teammates, and the wet road caused a significant domino effect.

The need to attend to so many cyclists led the organization to decide to neutralize the stage, and seeing that the issue was taking time to resolve, the race was completely stopped with 59 kilometers remaining. Many cyclists were affected, with names like Carapaz, Adam Yates, Pedersen, Derek Gee, Tratnik, or Lorenzo Fortunato. However, the worst affected was Jai Hindley himself, who was forced to abandon, leaving a significant gap in Primoz Roglic's Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe team in terms of the Slovenian's aspirations in this Giro d'Italia.

The race resumed after regrouping the fallen riders, leaving the escapees with the advantage they had before the stoppage. Shortly after resuming, whether by the organization's own decision or due to pressure from cyclists and teams, it was announced that only the times for the general classification and the points for the different classifications would be counted up to the point where the race was stopped.

From that moment on, 59 kilometers where only the stage victory would be at stake due to the presumed danger of the final part in those conditions, which curiously changed after the rain stopped and left a practically dry finish. This led many to choose to save energy during these kilometers, including Mads Pedersen, with three stages to his name and no chance of adding points for the Ciclamino jersey, and the favorites for the general classification who saw a splendid opportunity to conserve strength for the next day's stage.

It was difficult to catch the escapees, who resisted until less than 10 kilometers to the finish as the work of Visma-Lease a Bike did not seem to bear fruit. Alpecin-Deceuninck's fast man Kaden Groves had to appear to finish off the adventure and prepare for the sprint.

However, at one point, the rider leading the group opened a small gap, already reaching the last kilometer. The rider behind him saw this and tried the old trick of slowing down to split the group. Wout van Aert reacted, managed to close the gap, and pushed hard to try to reach the finish line. However, his attempt died 200 meters from the line.

His teammate Olav Kooij took over, launching the sprint along the barrier in a close-quarters battle, almost on the edge of legality, with Bardiani's rider Martin Marcellusi, preventing either of them from making a clean sprint. In fact, the Italian was relegated to the last position for an irregular maneuver during the sprint. Taking advantage of the reduced group and the open center of the road, Kaden Groves sprinted comfortably to win without any opposition.

Stage 6 Classification

1. Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 4h59'52''
2. Milan Fretin (Cofidis) +00''
3. Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) +00''
4. Max Kanter (XDS-Astana) +00''
5. Giovanni Lonardi (Polti-Visit Malta) +00''
6. Maikel Zijlaard (Tudor) +00''
7. Luca Mozzato (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) +00''
8. Matevz Govekar (Bahrain-Victorious) +00''
9. Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) +00''
10. Sam Bennett (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +00''

General Classification

1. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) 20h11'44''
2. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +17''
3. Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) +24''
4. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +31''
5. Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +32''
6. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +35''
7. Max Poole (Picnic-PostNL) +43''
8. Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) +44''
9. Michael Storer (Tudor) +46''
10. Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +50''