photo credits @ Giro d’Italia
Movistar’s Pelayo Sanchez earned himself the biggest win of his career today, after the Spanish rider won stage 6 of the Giro d’Italia, out-sprinting Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) from a three-rider breakaway.
Meanwhile, Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) gained back some lost time on race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), taking eight seconds in time bonuses through the intermediate sprints and finishing third on the stage.
Pogačar continues to lead the race, while Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) finished safely in the peloton to remain second at 46 seconds behind.
Race Highlights
It took nearly two hours of battling before a breakaway group finally came to form, with Plapp, Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Sanchez, Alaphilippe, Matteo Trentin (Tudor Cycling) and Filippo Fiorelli (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) peeling away.
The gap pushed north of three minutes going into the first gravel sector, enough to move Plapp into the virtual maglia rosa.
With 40 kilometers to go, a pileup along the second gravel ensnared a number of riders such as Ben O’Connor, Dani Martínez and Cian Uijtdebroeks. But, the trio was able to quickly reconnect with the field.
Up the road, the breakaway group also fractured, conceding valuable time that served to put Pogačar back into pink jersey during the final hour of racing.
UAE took over the reins of the peloton with around 15 kilometers remaining, while the breakaway continued to lose ground.
From there, the pressure continued to rise as the race hit the final sector of gravel, with several riders crashing in the middle of the bunch with less than 20km to go, this time involving Juan López (Lidl-Trek) and Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious).
With 16 kilometers left, Plapp, Alaphilippe and Sanchez saw their lead cut to 1:25 as the GC leaders hit the final gravel sector.
The trio later saw its lead cut to about 30 seconds with about 4km to go, with Sánchez and Alaphilippe attacking, while Plapp metered his efforts.
The Australian led into the uphill finish, with Alaphilippe opening up his sprint first but had to cede to Sanchez, who celebrated his first major victory.
In the meantime, Andrea Piccolo (EF Education-EasyPost), who attacked with 2 kilometers to go, stayed away for fourth on the stage a few seconds ahead of the bunch, led to the line by Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers).
You must be logged in to post a comment.
