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Stage 6 of the Giro d’Italia takes place tonight, and it’s an undulating course that looks to play into the hands of a breakaway. Join us as we cover all the action of the first of the Grand Tours. Wheels down at 7:40PM AEST.
Although this years Giro d’Italia route may not have looked as mouthwatering on paper when compared to the 2011 edition, the first few stages have provided more than enough thrills and far too many spills.
Stage 5 was no exception with Taylor Phinney spending more time on the floor after his stage 3 crash and the TTT cyclo-cross escapade, Garmin-Barracuda demonstrating their strength in depth with a strong sprint finish from Robbie Hunter to finish 4th and (another) master class in sprint trains from Sky and Orica-GreenEDGE.
The riders left a very windy Modena and headed in an almost arrow straight route from towards Fano. Taylor Phinney had ‘issues’ and was left to fend for himself and fight back to the peloton. With around 27km still to go Androni Giocattoli’s Alessandro DeMarchi was off the front alone with over a minute on the bunch.
However, with a fast and sweeping descent followed by a flat run in for the final 15km the lone escapee stood little chance of giving his Italian squad some positive Gazzetta press coverage and played into the hands of the charging peloton.
With Tyler Farrar already dropped, the South African National Champion, Robbie Hunter, looked to be Garmin-Barracuda’s bunch sprint hope as GreenEDGE and Team Sky organised their leadout trains.
With a show of true sprinting brilliance, Team Sky overcame some physical and mental bumps that have been caused over the last few days to slingshot Mark Cavendish across the line half a bike length before Matt Goss finished the day’s route.
With little to no change in the GC from stage 5, the undulating profile of stage 6 should play into the hands of a breakaway that contains the right riders who are not a threat to the GC contenders.
The major talking point of the day and one that has the potential to catch anyone out if they are not paying attention is the 4km of unpaved roads that are included in this stage.
Not strictly ‘strade bianche’, the Passo della Cappella climb tops out at 15% halfway through the stage and could be the perfect springboard for a successful breakaway.
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