Pelayo Sánchez (Movistar) triumphed from the remains of the breakaway on stage six of the Giro d'Italia, out-sprinting Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla) and Julian Alaphlippe (Soudal Quick-Step).
The trio were the last riders left from a breakaway which took almost 100km to form, and managed to hold off the onrushing peloton to contend for the win in Rapolano Terme. Plapp led his rivals for the stage win out, with Sánchez coming around Alaphilippe in the final metres of the day.
Behind, there was general classification action on the three gravel sectors, but no significant time gaps materialised, meaning Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) kept the race lead.
On a day which could have been a potential banana skin for any of those hunting for the overall win, there was a furious pace set from the start, as almost every team sought to get in the breakaway, and then the teams of GC riders sought to protect themselves on the gravel.
Despite some hard work from Ineos Grenadiers, there was no notable time changes in the top 10 overall, as most of the favourites came in together.
The break, whose advantage dipped under 20 seconds in the closing kilometres, worked just about well enough together on twisting Tuscan roads to hold on to the end.
"To be honest, this is amazing, I don’t have words," Sánchez, who has never won a WorldTour race, let alone a Grand Tour stage, said. "A crazy day for me."
"Since the start of the Giro I tried to save energy because I knew I didn’t have the shape to be at the front on the first day," he continued. "I tried to save energy for today. I could never imagine winning this stage today.
"I knew that it was going to be a really hard day, the whole day full gas. I tried to save energy and wait for my moment. After we’d done two hours, everyone was attacking and I made my move. I tried to be calm and eliminate some rivals. At the end I was with Plapp and Alaphlippe, I tried to collaborate with them, but also drop them. I tried the sprint at the end and luckily I was the fastest."
His fellow break companion, Plapp, said it was an "insane" day. "The race was out of control," he said. "It was ridiculous for the first 80km. Then it went out of control and I was able to jump. Kaden Groves actually set it up. He was amazing, for a sprinter, we all know how well he can climb but it was incredible.
"The three of us worked reasonably well to the finish. We played games a bit. I had half eyes looking for time and half eyes on the stage. I ended up riding a bit harder than the others, and they were playing it out, but in the end I’m happy."
How it happened
There were many riders and teams interested in stage six of the Giro d'Italia. Possibly too many. There were attacks right from kilometre zero, with every attacker very aware that the break had a great chance to make it to the finish, with difficult terrain, gravel and some nasty climbs in store.
As a result, a furious pace was set from the beginning, with every potential breakaway shut down before it had even had a chance to breathe. It took until almost 100km of racing for the escapees to be let off the leash, who were: Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step), Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Pelayo Sánchez (Movistar), Matteo Trentin (Tudor), Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla), Filippo Fiorelli (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè), and Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale).
The gap between these seven and the peloton reached three minutes at one point, with this putting Plapp in the virtual race lead on the road. However, on the gravel sectors, that time advantage was rapidly cut down. With 43km to go, Plapp forged off alone, and was joined by Alaphilippe and Sánchez, who would be his companions to the finish.
While the GC teams worked hard on the first two gravel sectors, there were no noticeable time gaps, other than those caused by a crash which briefly affected Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe), but they returned to the bunch.
With 16km to go, on the final gravel sector, the gap was just 1:35, with Ineos Grenadiers powering on the front, attempting to protect Geraint Thomas and isolate Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), but nothing came of it.
Thanks to some largely good collaboration from the trio up the road, they came into the final 5km with a lead of 45 seconds, which they maintained on the final climb into Rapolano Terme. Behind, Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich PostNL) launched an attack, but this fizzled out.
In the final kilometre, Plapp worked hard on the front, attempting to keep the speed high to prevent his breakaway peers coming around him, but it was not enough. First Alaphilippe jumped around the Australian, before Sánchez did the same to him, and held on to sprint to his first WorldTour victory. It was also Movistar's first of the year.
Results
Giro d'Italia 2024, stage five: Viareggio > Rapolano Terme (180km)
1. Pelayo Sánchez (Esp) Movistar, in 4:01:08
2. Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Soudal Quick-Step, at same time
3. Luke Plapp (Aus) Jayco AlUla, +1s
4. Andrea Piccolo (Ita) EF Education-EasyPost, +24s
5. Jhonatan Narváez (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers, +29s
6. Luka Mezgec (Slo) Jayco AlUla
7. Quinten Hermans (Bel) Alpecin-Deceuninck
8. Nick Schultz (Aus) Israel-Premier Tech
9. Daniel Felipe Martínez (Col) Bora-Hansgrohe
10 Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana Qazaqstan, all at same time
General Classification after stage five
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, in 23:20:52
2. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, +46s
3. Daniel Felipe Martínez (Col) Bora-Hansgrohe, +47s
4. Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bel) Visma-Lease a Bike, +55s
5. Einer Rubio (Col) Movistar, +56s
6. Lorenzo Fortunato (Ita) Astana Qazaqstan, +1:07
7. Juan Pedro López (Esp) Lidl-Trek, +1:11
8. Jan Hirt (Cze) Soudal Quick-Step, +1:13
9. Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana Qazaqstan, +1:26
10. Ben O’Connor (Aus) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, at same time
