2018 Giro d'Italia Stage 6 Results & Recap
Stage 6 of the 2018 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
Esteban Chaves wins stage as Mitchelton-Scott takes volcanic double.\nBy Stas Uittenbogaard
In an explosive first mountain stage, Mitchelton-Scott takes a volcanic one-two on stage 6 of the Giro d'Italia, as Simon Yates moves into the pink jersey. Previous race leader Rohan Dennis was dropped from the group of favourites and falls back to 6th place overall, 53 seconds behind the new race leader.
Yates crossed from the favourites group towards his teammate in front deep in the final of the stage. After the finish, the British rider remarked: "I looked across the road, everybody was looking at each other and I got a little gap so I took the chance. I said to [Chaves] as soon as I caught him, that he could take the stage because if I had enough time I'd take the jersey and he'd been out on the road all day, so I think he deserved it also."
Starting in Caltanisetta the peloton set out this morning for what was to be the first uphill showdown between general classification candidates. Despite furious attempts from many riders including Tony Martin (TKA), Darwin Atapuma (UAD) and Marco Frapporti (ANS), who retains the intermediate sprint classification, no attempt got away until after 50km out. A large group of 28 riders was allowed to move away, including Ben Hermans (ICA), Sergio Henao (SKY), Robert Gesink (TLJ), Giulio Ciccone (BRD), Diego Ulissi (UAD) and eventual stage winner Esteban Chaves (MTS). Shortly after, the group reached their maximum advantage of four minutes, at which point BMC paced the peloton to lock the gap to around three minutes.
At 50 km to the finish, Astana began to assist in the chase. As other teams including AG2R La Mondiale and Bahrain Merida followed twenty kilometres later, it seemed as though the break was going to get reeled back. Mitchelton-Scott's Jack Haig paced the break, which reached the foot of Mount Etna with just over a minute on the peloton. Robert Geesink (TLJ) was the first to attack from the break, opening up a hectic finale that quickly saw the front group whittled down to eight. Behind, the peloton was pulled apart by Astana, as Davide Formolo (BOH) was among the first to drop back after being caught in a crash shortly before the climb.
After working together with compatriot Sergio Henao to bring back attacks from young Italian rider Ciccone, Chaves launched his own attack at 5 kilometres from the finish line. At the same time Rohan Dennis and Maximilian Schachmann were dropped from the whittled down peloton. Several times it seemed as if Chris Froome (SKY) would join the ranks of contenders losing time, but he managed to get back to the favourites each time. Despite multiple attacks from Domenico Pozzovivo, Miguel Ángel López and George Bennett, Chaves held on to a 25 second advantage until his teammate Simon Yates attacked and bridged in the final two kilometres. Thibaut Pinot was the fastest of the chasing group, taking the last of the bonification seconds after crossing the line 26 seconds behind the stage winner. With this stage victory, the Colombian takes the KOM-jersey and moves up to third place overal, with Tom Dumoulin (SUN) retaining second at 16 seconds behind new race leader, Simon Yates.
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