Denmark’s Mads Pedersen won a sprint finish on stage six of the Giro d’Italia in Naples to complete the grand slam of Grand Tour victories.
After the chaos of a crash-strewn stage five in wet conditions, the 162 kilometres around Mount Vesuvius and the Amalfi coast under sunny skies produced little drama until the closing moments when breakaway duo Alessandro De Marchi and Simon Clarke were finally reeled in.
Veteran Australian Clarke and De Marchi had made their attack on the Picco Sant’Angelo climb, continuing to push on to stretch the advantage to more than two minutes heading into the final 30km.
The peloton, though, refused to give up the chase, with the sprinters eyeing a bunch finish as Alpecin-Deceuninck and Bora-Hansgrohe riders took up the pace.
It had looked like Clarke and De Marchi would hold on, but they were eventually caught with just 200m left.
Colombian Fernando Gaviria made a move for what would have been a first win on the Giro d’Italia for five years, but it was Pedersen who timed his charge to take victory in a bunch finish for Trek-Segafredo.
Jonathan Milan (Bahrain-Victorious) finished second with Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) in third place.
Mark Cavendish, who had slid across the finish line on his backside to take fourth place on Wednesday, was dropped on the first big climb.
It later emerged Cavendish had crashed at the end of the longest descent of the day from Colle San Pietro, and is set to be checked out by Astana’s team medical staff.
“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, told 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, but was brought back into the peloton by his Ineos-Grenadiers team, while Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) also had a mechanical issue.
Norwegian Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM) retained the leader’s pink jersey.
Favourite Remco Evenepoel - who was almost taken out of the race by a stray dog during stage five - finished safely in the peloton to remain 28 seconds behind for Soudal Quick Step, with Aurelien Paret-Peintre (AG2R Citroen) a further two seconds adrift in third.
Welshman Thomas sits in fifth place overall, one minute and 26 seconds behind, with team-mate Tao Geoghegan Hart in ninth.
Elsewhere, Arkea-Samsic announced rider Clement Russo had tested positive for Covid-19 and would not continue in the race.
Stage seven will run over 218km from Capua to a summit finish at Campo Imperatore.
PA
