Giro d'Italia stage 6: Mads Pedersen breaks breakaway’s hearts

Trek-Segafredo’s Mads Pedersen sprinted to his first win of this year’s Giro d’Italia on today’s sixth stage. After several near misses the Dane finally delivered in Napoli, outsprinting Bahrain-Victorious’ Jonathan Milan (second) and UAE-Team Emirates’ Pascal Ackermann (third) in a nail-biting finale where the breakaway was only reeled in with 200m to go.

“I’m pretty happy, this is what we came for. It was a tough day for the team, it’s nice to pay them back with a victory,” said Pedersen after the stage.

“It was pretty close in the end, it was not easy to catch them [the breakaway]. We basically had to use everyone, and not only us but all the sprinters had to use all their guys available. I feel sorry for those guys because they did really well, but I’m happy to take the win.”

This was another day earmarked for the fastmen, though on the run to the finish in Napoli it was touch-and-go whether they’d get the opportunity to sprint it out for stage honours given the one minute lead Israel-Premier Tech’s Simon Clarke and Jacyo-AlUla’s Alessandro De Marchi were managing to maintain at the head of the race. The two veterans worked incredibly well together, holding the rampaging bunch at an arm’s length.

The pair made it all the way to the last few hundred metres before they were finally swallowed up. Movistar’s Fernando Gaviria was the first to scream past them, opening up the sprint early.

He ran out of gas in the last 100m though, as Pedersen, Milan and Ackermann all came thundering past. Pedersen won by a relatively comfortable margin in the end, with a bike-length separating him and Milan.

Behind, all of the main GC contenders finished safely in the peloton, even Ineos Grenadiers’ Geraint Thomas who suffered an ill-timed mechanical at 10km to go.

Team DSM’s Andreas Leknessund also rolled home in the bunch, defending his maglia rosa for at least another day. He has a tough task on his hands to defend pink tomorrow, however, with the race heading deep into the Apennines for its first serious summit finish on Gran Sasso d’Italia.