2016 Giro d'Italia Stage 6 Results & Recap
Stage 6 of the 2016 Giro d'Italia is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Wellens wins stage 6 of the Giro d'Italia
Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) claimed the first Grand Tour stage of his career on stage 6 of the Giro d’Italia, on a day when the race’s first summit finish drew the general classification contenders into direct battle.
“It’s a very, very special win for me. I’ve got to thank the belief of the team and thanks to Dumoulin who let us get away. I felt really strong all day and felt really well," Wellens said.
The Belgian took advantage of a moment of calm after a brief storm in the bunch to get himself up to the breakaway halfway through the 157km journey from Ponte to Roccaraso, where such names as Fausto Copi, Bernard Hinault, and Moreno Argentin have celebrated in the past.
Wellens made his move on the early slopes of the 17km climb, countering an attack from Laurent Didier (Trek-Segafredo) – who was also past of the bridge to the break – before tucking his arms over his handelbars as if the long second-category climb was a time trial.
He was over a minute clear by the time he crossed the line and lifted his bike above his head, by which point shots were being fired among the overall contenders. Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) came home second and Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) third, while the aggressive race leader Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin), who has always insisted he’s not here for GC, was close behind in fourth having dealt a small but significant blow to 2013 champion Vincenzo Nibali (Astana).
It was Nibali’s teammates who had forced a fearsome pace on the climb, with Fuglsang, 35 seconds down on GC at the start of the day, attacking to force the other teams into action. Nibali’s follow-up attack came around 3km from the finish, but it lacked conviction and, as he eased up in anticipation of being caught, Dumoulin sprung a surprise with a stinging attack.
The Dutchman opened a sizeable gap, with Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and Zakarin the only ones able to react, and they soon caught Fulgsang and his fellow attack Kanstantin Siutsou (Dimension Data).
Nibali couldn’t react, nor could he stay with the likes of Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge), Rafal Majka (Tinkoff), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Steven Kruiswijk as the main group sprinted for the line a several seconds behind that group. Mikel Landa (Team Sky), who seemed to struggle on stage 4, finished with Nibali and so too lost a couple of seconds.
In the end, Nibali and Landa lost 23 seconds to Dumoulin, who now leads the race by 26 seconds from Fuglsang, who picked up six bonus seconds, and Zakarin, who picked up four. Though he dropped from second to fourth overall, Bob Jungels put in another impressive display to keep himself in the white jersey and in contention.
Get our full coverage of the Giro d'Italia and every race we cover with our mobile app! The apps have over 100 additional exclusive features, including our award-winning Time Machine feature that lets you pause/rewind/replay the entire app to sync with delayed race video, integrated Fantasy Cycling, push notifications, an integrated news feed, live GPS tracking, world-class commentary, and our animated interactive maps and profiles.
