Australian Simon Clarke has endured a brutal day in the Giro d'Italia, with his two-man breakaway caught by the pack with less than 300 metres left in the 162-kilometre sixth stage.
Mads Pedersen beat Jonathan Milan and Pascal Ackermann in a bunch sprint to win the stage, and Andreas Leknessund kept hold of the pink jersey in Naples.
But even Pedersen set aside his joy for a moment to share his commiserations for Clarke and breakaway partner Alessandro De Marchi.
"I feel really sorry for those guys," Pedersen said.
It looked like they were going to be in a two-way battle for victory after they were in a breakaway that went early in the day.
They led the peloton by more than 2 minutes with 25 kilometres left and still had a 40-second lead with 4 kilometres to go, but they were left broken-hearted after being swallowed up by the sprinters at the front of the pack just before the end.
De Marchi shook his head and embraced Clarke as they crossed the line, with both slumping on their bikes soon after.
"We just gave it everything. We needed 10 more seconds and that was it. We just missed out unfortunately," Clarke said.
Despite playing "cat and mouse" as they braced for a one-on-one fight for the line for 70 kilometres, Clarke thanked his Jayco-AlUla rival after the stage.
"Without him I wouldn't have arrived even this close to a stage victory," the Israel-Premier Tech rider said.
"We know each other very well, I know how strong he is, and once I was in a breakaway with him today I knew we could give it a big crack at staying away.
"I've dreamt of this victory [for] many years now. I've been second and third and fourth in a stage and fortunate enough to have a day in the pink jersey as well. It would've been amazing to add a stage victory as well but it wasn't to be."
For all his disappointment, Clarke recognised it was just part of the sport.
"Don't hate the player hate the game. We just keep trying," he said.
"The days do happen [when breakaway riders win]. We saw a breakaway victory on stage 4, and nearly one today, maybe one tomorrow.
"I don't know that there's no more breakaway victories, just got to pick the right day."
There were two categorised climbs along the stage that went around Mount Vesuvius, with Clarke and De Marchi dropping four of their six-rider breakaway along the way, before going through Sorrento and along the Amalfi coast on a relatively calm day.
That would have come as a relief to the riders after miserable weather the previous day caused several crashes.
Pre-race favourite Remco Evenepoel was in a lot of pain after being involved in two of those incidents but he appeared not to be too affected by that as he finished safely in the peloton to remain 28 seconds behind Leknessund.
Aurélien Paret-Peintre was third overall, 30 seconds behind Leknessund.
The Giro ends in Rome on May 28.
ABC with wires
