Denmark’s Mads Pedersen received a dash end on stage six of the Giro d’Italia in Naples to finish the grand slam of Grand Tour victories.
After the chaos of a crash-strewn stage 5 in moist situations, the 162 kilometres round Mount Vesuvius and the Amalfi coast beneath sunny skies produced little drama till the closing moments when breakaway duo Alessandro De Marchi and Simon Clarke had been lastly reeled in.
Veteran Australian Clarke and De Marchi had made their assault on the Picco Sant’Angelo climb, persevering with to push on to stretch the benefit to greater than two minutes heading into the ultimate 30km.
The peloton, although, refused to surrender the chase, with the sprinters eyeing a bunch end as Alpecin-Deceuninck and Bora-Hansgrohe riders took up the tempo.
It had seemed like Clarke and De Marchi would maintain on, however they had been finally caught with simply 200m left.
Colombian Fernando Gaviria made a transfer for what would have been a primary win on the Giro d’Italia for 5 years, however it was Pedersen who timed his cost to take victory in a bunch end for Trek-Segafredo.
Jonathan Milan (Bahrain-Victorious) completed second with Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) in third place.
Mark Cavendish, who had slid throughout the end line on his bottom to take fourth place on Wednesday, was dropped on the primary huge climb.
It later emerged Cavendish had crashed on the finish of the longest descent of the day from Colle San Pietro, and is about to be checked out by Astana’s staff medical workers.
“It was a tough day for the team and it’s nice to pay them back with a victory today,” Pedersen, the 2019 world champion, advised reporters after his stage win.
“It was pretty close in the end. It was not easy to catch them for a long time. All the sprinters had to use all the guys we had available.
“We caught them with 300m to go. I feel sorry for those guys because they did really, really well – but I am happy I took the win.”
With 11km left, Geraint Thomas suffered a dropped chain, however was introduced again into the peloton by his Ineos-Grenadiers staff, whereas Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) additionally had a mechanical problem.
Norwegian Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM) retained the chief’s pink jersey.
Favourite Remco Evenepoel – who was virtually taken out of the race by a stray canine throughout stage 5 – completed safely within the peloton to stay 28 seconds behind for Soudal Quick Step, with Aurelien Paret-Peintre (AG2R Citroen) an additional two seconds adrift in third.
Welshman Thomas sits in fifth place total, one minute and 26 seconds behind, with team-mate Tao Geoghegan Hart in ninth.
Elsewhere, Arkea-Samsic introduced rider Clement Russo had examined constructive for Covid-19 and wouldn’t proceed within the race.
Stage seven will run over 218km from Capua to a summit end at Campo Imperatore.
PA